Playing with Fire
by jetderk1462 and DCFanatic4life
Summary: Ever wonder what would've happened if the Chris and Stephanie affair storyline had gone through? Well you're about to find out...
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: We do own them, sorry, we hate to break it to you. We own them so much that we're putting a sanction on any and all Randy and/or John stories, and from now on we're only allowing Chris and Stephanie stories….or at least that's what we'd do in a perfect world. In this one, we own nothing and nobody.**

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A/N: What? What's this? Could it be? Could two monster powers of the Smoochy fic world actually be joining forces? Is this a dream land, are you rubbing your eyes making sure that this is real?

Rest assured my friends, this is real and yes, this is a co-written fic like you've never read before (I'd say something snide here, but I'm too nice). Anyways, this is a co-written story, alternating chapters and alternating points of views. I, Nina, DCFanatic4life, will be writing from Stephanie's perspective, and my partner-in-crime, Carolina, jetderk1462, will be taking our lovely leading man, Chris Jericho's perspective.

Oh, and if you aren't aware of what we mean by affair storyline, well...Chris Jericho proposed an affair between his character and Stephanie's character as a way of getting her on his side before WrestleMania X-8. Triple H didn't like the idea, and we were left with the business partnership instead.

So sit back, and enjoy. And review too, because we want to know what you think, and we're both tough, we can take it on the chin if you want to lay into us.

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It wasn't that Stephanie didn't love Hunter. She did, and very much, but she knew what was good for business. She had always had a head for business, at least that's what her father had always said. She took that as a compliment, her own little gem that she took with her through her years that led her here, and where she knew she could thrive. Stephanie knew what was good for business, and she knew that she was going to do everything in her power to make what she was a part of the exemplary part of the show

So she knew this was a good idea. She only had to make Hunter (the nickname he had gotten years ago from his parents that had stuck with him lo these many, many years) see the same thing.

"So I think that would be a good idea," Chris said as he had outlined this affair storyline for himself and for Stephanie.

Stephanie had sat there, listening to him talk on and on about the show and the history and she had nodded with every word. He had really thought this whole thing through and she had to commend him for that. She hated when wrestlers would come up to her with half-baked ideas. It was usually just a strategy to get themselves on television more when their talents were actually sub-par.

With Chris it was an entirely different story. Chris could carry a match, and he could certainly carry a crowd. He had been doing it for years now, and the culmination of those years was the reason why he was sitting atop the proverbial mountain with the two belts by his side. And her character, the caricature of herself that she played on television would see nothing but those belts, but the ideas he had right now, were perfect.

There was nothing that she and Chris had but history. She was sure that it was one of the longest on-going storylines in the company, probably only eclipsed by her on-screen marriage to her off-screen boyfriend, Hunter. There was another piece of long-running history. But what Chris was suggesting, using their history to amplify their current storyline was brilliance personified, and as she looked around the table at the rest of those attending this particular production meeting, she saw the same nodding that she was doing. Yes, she had a good head for business.

But so did Chris.

Her head turned to all those in attendance, taking note of their expressions as Chris's voice went on further, explaining his reasoning for this proposed affair. It turned directly to her left where Hunter was sitting. His expression was decidedly more dour than those of her colleagues. She studied him for a minute and knew what he was thinking instantly. She had known even before she had to look and she sighed because she could feel a fight brewing in his stomach right this moment.

She gave a soft and silent laugh to herself. She knew that Hunter hated Chris with a passion. Okay, so saying it was "with a passion" was an understatement. Hunter hated Chris with more than a passion. It was bordering on some deep, dark place that she'd rather not go. It was the one part of himself that he didn't want to open up to her. She didn't know why he hated Chris so much, and when she asked, he'd close faster than a clam. So she didn't dare ask any longer. She knew this was going to be a struggle, so she shot out the first bullet to start the war.

"I like that idea," she said, smiling congenially at him, letting him know through her facial expression that she actually did like his idea and she wasn't just saying so because she didn't want to bruise that ego of his.

"Yeah?" he asked expectantly, and Stephanie wanted to liken him to a puppy seeking attention, but Chris Jericho was anything but a puppy, maybe like a tiger or something, or some animal that had a predatory look in his eye but turned out to be something entirely different. She couldn't think of the animal though so puppy it was.

"Yeah, definitely, bringing in our history is genius, really," Stephanie told him, and she heard the light murmur of agreement from her staff. "And we did have those two kisses, and the second one, at SummerSlam, would be the perfect beginning to some sort of affair. Like on that night, we couldn't hold in our inhibitions any longer and we gave in."

"Exactly," Chris said, glad that she had gotten it.

Stephanie smiled; she was beginning to like this more and more. Then she thought for a moment and laughed, "You know, it's almost like this was writing itself. I never thought that, that storyline could've ever led up to something like this, but you know, it makes perfect sense."

And to her it did. When she thought about it, really thought about it, hadn't it all been leading up to this anyways? With the bickering, the fighting, everything and anything in between, hadn't it all just been leading up to some sort of connection, whether it be physical or mental? It was the perfect progression of their on-screen relationship, and with her upcoming break-up with Hunter, it would be perfect.

"I still don't see why we have to break-up in the first place," Hunter muttered to the table, almost as if he had heard Stephanie's internal monologue (but Hunter doesn't have special powers like that, or so we hope).

"We've discussed this time and time again Hunter," Stephanie told him. He just could not understand that she was not someone who could be a face. Certainly not now, and maybe forever, maybe she could never be a face again. She was hated, she wasn't so blind to the outside world that she didn't know that she was talked about, mocked, berated by people who didn't know her. But she was trying her best, and she could do no more. "I can't be a face, they'll never believe it."

"It doesn't matter, if you're on my side, they'll like you."

"You need an adversary, you need an enemy, and what are we going to play up if you and Chris don't have anything to feud over?" she asked him, trying to be rational.

"Shouldn't the fact that I'm going after the belts be enough?"

"No," she said. "This is the biggest show of the year we're leading up to. We can't have a storyline that falls flat. My dad is going full steam ahead with Rocky and Hogan, so we can't let this fall by the wayside, do you get what I'm saying?"

"I get it, I just don't see why it has to be this?"

"Did you not just listen to the man?" Stephanie told him, her voice raising even as she tried to keep it even. "He explained why this was a good idea."

"I don't think it is," Hunter protested. "You guys hated each other, why would it make sense now for you guys to suddenly have an affair? It makes no sense."

"Because we would've been _covering up_ the affair," she explained to him. "Don't you see, it's perfect, and then that scene we had a Christmas, do you remember that one Chris, when I came and gave my dad that present?"

"Yeah, and we just looked at each other, no words or anything," he responded and she turned to Hunter, extending her arms out like it should've been obvious.

"See, it's already started without us knowing it. If Chris and I were indeed having an affair, then we could use that as something that kind of broke the barrier _for the audience_, kind of like, well that's how they are now, so to speak. Then with the explanation…Chris, this really was a great idea. I'm almost tempted to steal it and say I came up with it."

"Thanks," he said, and she was a little shocked to hear him sound bashful about it. She wondered if he was just proud of it, as he should be actually. It was a sound idea, and actually had a lot of lead up into it, considering this was wrestling where ideas seemed to come on the fly most of the time.

"I like it," Stephanie nodded. "I really think this is the direction in which we need to go."

"I still think we could come up with better," Hunter said, and she was starting to get tired of his shtick. She knew that it bothered him to be in a feud with Chris in the first place, but she also knew he wanted those belts badly.

"And what do you suggest then?" she said, giving in to his little whining. If she gave him a little branch, maybe he would leave this alone and she could say that it was the direction they were going in.

"Maybe just a business partnership," he said, looking straight at her. "Nothing that involves you looking like a slut."

"Hunter, sweetie, I already look like a slut, it's pretty established that people think I'm a slut. They'll definitely hate me if they think I cheated on our new golden boy, which is you. And what we want for Chris right now is heat. He's the heel, the bad guy, and I can't be the sympathetic dumped ex-wife. Then he'll look like a tweener, and that's the last thing we need going into a WrestleMania match of all things."

"I think she's right," one of her staff, Sam, added. "We don't want Chris to look like he's anything good. We want him booed."

"Well then he can do something to me," Hunter snapped at him. "Hit me or beat me up or something. Him and Stephanie can be conniving."

"We will be, but Hunter, think about this," she said slowly, hoping he would come around. "Why waste all this time we've had this storyline? People know that Chris and I have had scenes together, we've been a main staple for years, so let's give the people the obvious peak of this storyline."

"I just don't think--"

"Nobody asked you to think!" she said. She looked around the table. "You know what, end of discussion. I am the head of creative, and barring my dad's opinion, which I think will be a favorable one, this story is going through. I like it, and I'm in charge, done, meeting over."

"What!" Hunter exclaimed angrily, slamming his fists on the table as everyone stood up and scurried out of the room, everyone that is, except for Chris.

"Steph, thanks," he said shortly as he left. Stephanie gave him a parting smile before turning her attentions to her boyfriend. He looked angry and she turned her eyes heavenward. She stood up and started to peruse through her papers, organizing them again.

"Don't even start with me Hunter."

"And why shouldn't I?"

"Because I'm not in the mood to hear it."

"You know I don't like this," he said to her. "You know that I don't like that guy, and I don't want him to be kissing you."

"Deal with it," she said, not wanting to get into it here. She was already embarrassed by that display he had just pulled in front of her employees. "You're skating on thin ice with me as it is, and I don't think you want to fall through."

"Stephanie, would you just see my side of things?"

"I don't even know why you have this vendetta against Chris. You've had this grudge against him since before I knew you. You won't tell me why, so I won't tell you why I decided this storyline is going to go through. It's done, it's over with."

"Look, you and him as business partners? It solves the problem. You can still use the past, or say to hell with the past, either way, it works. It would be great, I swear to you."

Stephanie pinched the bridge of her nose. Sometimes she and Hunter could go ten rounds, but she was not in the mood for that today. They were two strong personalities and they often butt heads with each other, but this was ridiculous. She closed her eyes, hearing his stunted breath even as she tried to block out sound and the impending headache she would get if he continued on like he was.

"I don't think it would be great," she said, enunciating every word as if he were a child, but he was acting like a child right now. A stupid, naïve child, but she could say that was how he always acted when Chris was involved. Maybe Chris had slept with one of Hunter's past girlfriends, maybe that's why he held such a grudge. Or maybe Chris had stolen Hunter's hair gel or something. She laughed at that.

"What's so funny?" he asked impatiently. He just had to wear her down.

"Oh, nothing," she said, covering her mouth as she cleared her throat, masking her giggles. Hunter stood up and wrapped his arms around Stephanie's waist, standing perpendicular to her. He leaned his chin on her shoulder so he could study her profile.

"Steph, I just don't think I'd be comfortable seeing you with another man," Hunter said quietly. "I love you, and seeing you kissing Chris, I just…it hurts to think about you know. It's been us for the past two years, and now you want to completely erase some of that and say that you had an affair with Chris. It's almost like you want to erase some of us."

Stephanie sucked at her teeth a little. "I'm not going to erase us. We're together, we're dating, there's not much of that you can erase. Besides, it's stage-kissing, there's a huge difference. Not to mention the little fact that Chris has a wife at home, so, you know, I don't think it means a whole helluva lot that he's kissing me."

"See, what's with _him _wanting to kiss you?" Hunter asked.

"He saw potential, and he's bringing it to the table. He loves his wife as far as I know, he's only spoke glowingly of her, so I don't think he has a secret agenda."

"But Steph, I'm scared," he said, kissing her jaw. "I don't want to see you kissing another man."

"Okay, would you stop?" she asked. "Because this is just you trying to wear me down in order to get your way, but guess what, not going to happen."

"Stephanie, this entire thing is shit, okay, it's horrible and nobody is going to buy it. You hated each other, you guys hated each other, and suddenly saying, 'Hey, we were fucking,' is not going to make people hate you."

"Yes, it will because they," she poked him in the chest, "love," another poke, "you," she finished, poking him one more time in the chest, harder this time to get her point across. "And I don't want to hear another word from you. In case you've forgotten, I am the boss around here, not you."

"And if I went to your dad?"

"Don't you even dare try to fuck with this Hunter, I swear to God, this storyline is going through whether you like it or not," Stephanie answered with venom in her voice. "If you fail to see the potential this has to tie up so many loose ends, that's not my fault, but live with it, love it, embrace it, and fucking deal with it, because I'm not going to show you the light any further."

"Fine, be that way!" Hunter shouted, storming out of the office. Stephanie bit back her scream of frustration and sat down heavily. Oh well, he'd come around. He'd show up later, with flowers no doubt, saying he was wrong, and that he'd accept whatever was thrown at him. He was so predictable.

He just didn't see the potential.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: **Whoa, a tag team effort! Pretty cool huh? Well let's get to it… we own nothing, sadly, but maybe someday :)

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To say that Chris was shocked his idea had been approved would be a tremendous understatement.

It's not that he didn't believe in it. In fact, he had nothing but faith in the idea, and he knew it would get him the necessary heel heat he needed heading into Wrestlemania. After all, with the impending on-screen break up between Hunter and Stephanie, it wasn't as if she'd just disappear by the wayside. He had heard the rumors that they were tossing the idea around of potentially siding him with Stephanie, and so he naturally envisioned an affair storyline.

But the fact that it would be an affair storyline between him and _Stephanie _had made him weary, so much to the point where he had wondered if it was even worth proposing. The last time an affair storyline had been suggested was with Kurt Angle, and that had been shot down almost ruthlessly by one man.

Chris frowned at the thought of Hunter. He didn't know what he had done, but the older man seemed to take a dislike to him from the very moment he'd entered the company. That dislike had slowly evolved into an intense hatred, a hatred that boggled the Canadian's mind because he had no idea where it had come from. So he had naturally assumed Hunter would shoot down his idea of having an affair storyline. It was to be expected.

What he hadn't expected, however, was Stephanie liking his idea. That had been a nice surprise for him, until of course, Hunter had to go off on his little tirade about how it didn't make any kind of sense. Chris had forced himself to bite his tongue and stay quiet as Hunter had his temper tantrum, and part of him had even expected Stephanie to give in to her boyfriend like she had a tendency to do.

But he was starting to find out that Stephanie was full of surprises.

He slowly pushed open the door to his house, incredibly thankful that the show that night had been in his hometown of Tampa. He didn't mind traveling, but there was nothing like the feel of his own bed. Dropping his duffel bag on the floor and carefully laying his two championship belts down on a nearby table, he headed into his kitchen to get something to drink, curiously noting that the light was turned on.

As soon as he stepped into the kitchen, he saw why. His wife was sitting at the table, her reading glasses on as she read a book. He cleared his throat, and she looked up at him in surprise.

"What took you so long?" she asked, putting her book down as he raised an eyebrow.

"Nice to see you too, Jess," he answered with a hint of sarcasm as he walked over to the fridge.

"I'm just saying, whenever the shows are here, you're usually home by midnight," she pointed out as he pulled out a pitcher.

"Yeah, but I told you I had to stay for a production meeting after the show," he reminded her. "So you didn't have to wait up for me."

"I didn't know those meetings ran so late," she remarked as she removed her reading glasses and he poured himself a glass of juice.

"Well, I hung out a bit with Rocky after the meeting," he said with a shrug. "We're going to have another match together at the Rumble, so we both just got to talking about it and I guess I lost track of the time."

"You and Rock again?"

"Yeah, management seems to like our matches," he said with a smirk. "I mean, we do steal the show every time we're up."

"Good, management has good taste then," she said with a smile as she stood up. He tensed a bit as he remembered Stephanie approving his idea that night, before raising his glass to drink his juice. "Are you going to come to bed, or are you going to stay up?" she asked him.

He lowered his glass on the counter and sighed, looking over at his wife, who was looking at him expectantly. He hadn't exactly told her that he was going to propose a storyline that would involve Stephanie having an affair him… but he hadn't expected it to get approved. So at the time, he saw no reason to tell her his idea. But now that it seemed they would go through with it, he figured it was a good time to fill her in.

Even so, he was hesitant to have this conversation. Jessica had always been on the jealous side, and he knew he was going to be in for a long argument…

"Chris?" she said, waving to him, an amused look on her face as his eyes refocused. "You zoned out on me."

"Oh, sorry," he said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "Jess, there's something I think we need to talk about."

"Sounds serious," she said, raising an eyebrow.

"No, it's not, it's actually not that big of a deal," he said with a shrug. "But we still need to talk about it."

"Okay," she said as she gave him a confused look. He sucked at his teeth a bit as he wondered how to go about this. He wanted to phrase it the best way he could, to lessen the blow and calm the waves that he was bound to cause. Jessica was very temperamental at times, and he knew that no matter what he said, she was going to get upset. That thought gave him the nudge he needed as he decided to just go ahead and say it.

"You know that meeting I had to go to tonight?"

"Yeah, what about it?"

"Well, you remember how I told you that they have Hunter set to win the Rumble, so we're going to main event Wrestlemania?"

"I remember," she said, still not knowing where this was going.

"Well creative came up with an idea to give us a lot of heat going into the match," he said as she laughed.

"Chris, if you're just going to talk to me about how you're going to beat up Hunter with a sledgehammer or something, can't it wait until the morning?"

"That's not what I was going to say," he said with a frown as she sighed. She stepped up to him and wrapped him into a loose hug, looking up at him.

"Fine, I'm sorry, what is this big idea, my love?"

"Well, you know how me and Steph always hated each other?" he asked, and she nodded. "Well… someone on creative thought it'd be a good idea if she turned on Hunter and sided with me for our match," he said, purposely leaving out the part that it was actually his idea. It would already be hard enough to tell her about it without slapping his name next to it and claiming the idea as his own.

"Oh, that's a good idea," she said with a smile, and he looked genuinely surprised.

"Yeah, you think so?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah, she'd be your manager I'm guessing?" she asked curiously, as he gave a chuckle.

"Not exactly…"

"What do you mean, not exactly?"

He sighed and decided to stop beating around the bush. If she was going to get pissed, then she was going to get pissed. It didn't matter how easily he broke the news, because she'd still be upset regardless. He might as well just put it out there so the argument could begin.

"They want Stephanie to cheat on Hunter with me," he said almost hesitantly as her eyes narrowed. "It's a great way to get us some heat for our match," he added as she scowled.

"You mean to tell me someone suggested you guys having an affair storyline?" she asked in disbelief, and he went to respond, but she kept going. "Are you serious? You and Stephanie having an affair?"

"Well, yeah," he said, frowning as she pulled away from him. "It's good for business, Jess."

"How is it good for business?" she demanded, glaring at him angrily. He sighed, knowing this argument had been inevitable. "It doesn't even make sense, Chris!"

"What do you mean, it doesn't make sense?" he asked, a defensive edge in his tone. "The idea is solid and we're using our history to build up to it, it's a great story to use for Wrestlemania."

"But you spent all that time hating her, and all of a sudden out of the blue, you two were having an affair?" she said, putting her hands on her hips. Chris groaned, not wanting to hear that, not after having to sit through Hunter's whining earlier that night.

"Look," he started, trying not to sound annoyed, "it makes sense because we have such a history, and we've had kisses, and we've just had so much, Jess. Where's the payoff to all of that?"

"Her jumping into your bed sounds like a grand one," she said with sarcasm lacing her voice, and he rolled his eyes.

"I just wanted to tell you so that when you see it, you're not shocked, that's all," he said shortly as he turned and walked away, with Jessica right on his heels.

"What do you mean _when _I see it?" she demanded, and he sighed. "I thought you said someone had just suggested it!"

He once again avoided mentioning the small fact that it was his suggestion, not prepared to engage in World War 3 on that night. Instead, he marched up the stairs towards their bedroom as she walked up next to him.

"Chris, I asked you a question!" she snapped.

"Someone did suggest it," he said dryly as he reached the top of the stairs. "And it's been approved already."

"What?" she asked, her eyes widening. "Who would approve an idea like that?"

"Who wouldn't?" he sighed, getting exasperated. "Look, I know you don't like it, okay? I knew you wouldn't, but it's good for my match at Wrestlemania."

"I just don't see why you guys couldn't up with something better," she said as she followed him into their bedroom. "Chris, you have such great ideas, couldn't you think of something better than that and go back to get them to change their minds?"

"No, it's been approved already," he repeated as he sat down on the bed and started untying his shoes. "There's nothing left to say."

"I'm sure if you talked to Stephanie though, you two could come up with something else -"

"Jessica," he admonished, giving her a stern glare. "It's not going to change, so just drop it."

"How can you say that!" she exclaimed, gazing at him in disbelief. "How can you just be so nonchalant about this!"

"What is the big deal, huh?" he demanded as he gazed at her standing a few feet in front of him. "Seriously Jess, you're blowing this way out of proportion."

"Do you even realize what this means?"

"What?" he asked, confused as she started pacing.

"God Chris, don't you see? You're going to have to be touching her and kissing her!" she cried out angrily as she shot him a look. "You don't even care, do you?"

He rolled his eyes as he kicked off his shoes. "Of course there's going to be physical contact, but it's not going to mean anything."

"Why are you only thinking about yourself in this?" she asked and he gave her a bewildered look.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"You don't even care that I'm going to have to see you week in and week out kiss another woman!" she cried out, and he sighed again. "And God, what if my parents see? They already give me so much shit about you being a wrestler, now how am I going to explain you out there with her of all people!"

He sucked in at his teeth a bit, before standing up and giving her a serious look. "I understand where you're coming from."

She sighed with relief, smiling a bit at him. "Good, I'm glad you're seeing things my way."

"I didn't say that," he pointed out, and she looked at him in confusion. "All I said is that I understand where you're coming from, and I do. But you don't have anything to worry about, Jess. This is just business."

"It's bad business," she shot back, and he scowled as he started to feel his temper flaring through him.

"It's _good _business," he corrected, starting to get frustrated with her as he hastily pulled off his shirt, tossing it to the side before looking back up at her. "Look, I already told you, it's been approved and we're doing it. That's it."

"If you really wanted to, you could get out of it…"

"Jessica, stop!" he yelled, at his wits end. She flinched when he did, and his look softened a bit as he sighed. "I'm sorry Jess, but God, you're giving me hell for a decision I have no control over. It's been approved and that's it," he said again, hoping he was making her see the light.

"Whatever," she said in a dry tone as she walked around him and sat down on her edge of the bed. She climbed in and pulled the blankets over her, not looking back at him as he groaned.

"Come on, you cannot seriously be so upset by this storyline," he said as he went over and sat down next to her. She didn't answer him and he rubbed her leg a bit. "Jess, babe, I'm sorry, I really am. But can't you see how much this will help our match? Hunter just came back on TV not too long ago and he's hot right now, and I need to get some heel heat going into our match… and what better way -"

"Look, you're already set on doing it and apparently you're not budging on it, so drop it," she snapped, and he rolled his eyes.

"Fine, if you want to be like that, then whatever," he said in a tone that matched hers as he stood up. He was frustrated and annoyed, but he had known it would be this way. He'd been with Jessica long enough to be able to read her pretty well. As he climbed onto his side of the bed, he thought about saying something to ease the tension in the room.

Instead, he turned onto his side so he was giving her his back, frowning as he gazed at the wall. She was so stubborn sometimes. Even when he'd tried explaining it, she just refused to listen to his reasoning. Part of him didn't blame her though. For all the time she'd been with him, she still didn't understand the business and how it worked.

She just couldn't see the potential.


	3. Chapter 3

She knew she was going to have to cut off Hunter at the pass. He would most assuredly go to her father, she knew this, so she was doing what she did best, and that was to get there first. You didn't become what she was without knowing how to play the game. This most definitely wasn't her first time at the rodeo. She walked up to her father's office and tapped lightly on the door before peeking her head inside. Her father looked up at her, peering at his daughter over his reading glasses.

"Stephanie, hello," he said warmly as he removed his glasses and set them down on the desk in front of him. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Hi Dad," Stephanie said brightly. "I needed to talk to you about the production meeting we had last night. I know that we aren't going to be getting into some of the storylines for a while, but since you decided to come to the house show tonight, I thought that perhaps we could sit down and I can tell you the plan going into WrestleMania. I wanted to discuss the Triple H and Chris Jericho storyline specifically."

"I trust your decisions Stephanie," Vince told her, and she smiled, glad that her father trusted her opinions. This would make it that much easier.

"I'm glad you feel that way Dad," she started, then cleared her throat. "Anyways, we invited Chris's input into the production meeting last night, and he actually had a very good idea. Solid, well-thought out, and the perfect way to get him heat for his WrestleMania match."

"The man does have a good head on his shoulders," Vince agreed, "so tell me what this master plan is."

"Okay," she smiled, trying to act genial and polite. "He suggested that we have an affair storyline, in that my character and his have been having an affair since Hunter was away rehabbing. We reveal this affair after the wedding renewal we have planned, and we both think this could garner us some real heat."

"Affair storyline you say?" he mused, leaning back in his chair as he clasped his hands together and tapped his chin with said hands. "And everything that happened with you hating each other on-screen was just a cover-up?"

"Exactly," she said with a nod. "It was all just leading up to this. We're thinking of saying it started after that kiss we shared at SummerSlam. We never really delved into the reasons behind that kiss, and now we can do that. Chris and I both think that this storyline has practically written itself as it is."

"I love it," Vince said with a smile. "I absolutely love it. It's got scandal, it's got sex appeal, and I'd be a fool not to admit that you and Chris have some chemistry when you're out there. I don't see why you had to clear this with me, it's a wonderful idea."

"Just wanted to make sure that you approved of it completely," she said, standing up and going around the desk to kiss her father's cheek. "Thank you Dad."

"Not a problem, Princess."

Stephanie walked out of the room, satisfied with her performance in there. She knew her father would give in to her, that's how it usually worked out. Now that she had full disclosure to go ahead with the storyline, she should probably meet with Chris to iron out the logistics. The good thing about Chris was you never had to give him too much direction. They never had to write his promos for him, or script anything. He was just that good, and that's why she had always enjoyed working with him.

She knew that Hunter was going to be mad that he wasn't getting his way, but her feelings with her were that he just had to suck it up. She had watched as he had to get closer to Trish for that time period back in 2000, the least he could do was the return the favor here. And it wasn't like she was actually going to be having an affair with Chris. It was a storyline, a way to generate heat for their match and not much else.

She eventually found Chris sitting on a trunk in one of the hallways in the labyrinth-like backstage area of the arena they were occupying that evening. She put her best smile forward because she didn't want to seem like his boss. She knew that he must've been a little apprehensive of her after the way Hunter had acted the night before, but it was none of her fault, her boyfriend was just being an asshole, which he tended to be on occasion.

"Chris!" Stephanie called out in a bright voice.

Chris turned his head and saw her, giving her a small smile, "Oh, hey Stephanie."

"Hey, I was actually looking for you, and here you are."

"Lucky me," he said with a short laugh. She noticed he was looking around a little bit, like he was looking for someone and only one name came to mind.

"Don't worry, I didn't come with Hunter in tow, just me," she joked, hoping it would put him at ease.

He appeared to relax at that declaration. "It's not that he's a bad…"

"No, no, completely understandable. I'd like to apologize to you after what he did last night. It was completely unprofessional and I'm just embarrassed that you and all the other writers had to see that. It was just…humiliating."

"Not for you," he told her easily. "I mean, I can see where he's coming from, I don't think I'd like my wife to see me making out with some other guy and pretending they were having an affair."

"Well, its business, and he'll see that. Anyways, that brings me to what I wanted to speak with you about," she told him, turning on her professional voice at the drop of a hat. "I went to my father, and I got the final approval for the storyline. Which means that despite Hunter's whining, there's nothing he can do about it."

"Wow, so that means your dad liked the idea?"

"He thought it was great, you're a hit," she told him. "I did really think that it was a good one too. And I'm not just saying that, I promise. I've always looked forward to working with you. Of everyone on the roster, you and I have some of the richest history and we should use that."

"That's all I'm saying," Chris responded.

"Yeah, and I think this storyline is going to be great, and I'm really excited to do it with you," she paused and chuckled under her breath. "Wow, that really sounded wrong, not do _it _with you of course…I mean, you know, like, just…"

Now she was getting flustered and that wasn't who she was at all. She tried to laugh it off as she could feel her skin burning. She was starting to blush and it was creeping her cheeks and to her ears as she felt her face get hotter. It didn't help that Chris's small smile had turned into a big grin during her embarrassing attempt at putting a sentence together. She bit her lip in an attempt to shut herself up, but she had already done the damage.

"I get what you meant," he laughed. "Do I make you nervous?"

"No," she told him, gaining a small amount of her pride back. "What I meant was…it's just that…oh my God, what is wrong with my mouth?"

"The idea of sex with me makes you ill?" he suggested. "That's not going to bode well for our storyline you know? Especially since the entire thing hinges on us pretending that we've been having sex for a while."

"Oh, I have no problem with having sex with you," and then she gasped and covered her mouth. If she could stick her foot any further into her mouth, it would be coming out of her ass at this point. She closed her eyes and hoped that this was all in her mind, but hearing Chris's deep laughter assured her that this was her reality. "I'm _so _profoundly sorry."

"Its okay, my foot has been in my mouth more times than I can count," Chris told her, trying to put her at ease after her faux pas.

"Good, because I'm about two seconds away from running at full speed to the ladies room and writing in my diary that I had my most embarrassing moment ever just a few minutes ago. I didn't mean that sex would be good, not that I'd know, not that I'm saying it wouldn't, not that I'd you know, invite…I'm just…yes, looking forward to working with you," she finished pathetically, wondering if her pride had just taken a permanent vacation.

"Me too," he told her, though she knew nothing of his real feelings, or what had happened to him previously with his wife.

"Good, we'll discuss the finer points I'm sure. We're going to have to think of a timeline and everything, but it'll be good, we'll be good. The fans have been waiting for this I'm sure."

"Waiting for what?" another voice said and Stephanie felt a couple of arms wrap around her tightly, almost possessively. She wanted to push him off just because she knew what he was doing, but she refrained for the moment.

"I was just telling Chris that I was looking forward to working with him," Stephanie said, tilting her head back to look at her boyfriend.

"Oh? How nice for the both of you," Hunter said, but there was a definite edge to his voice. Stephanie nudged him lightly in the stomach, a silent warning to cool it.

"You know, I've got to go call my wife," Chris said, rubbing his hand on the back of his neck. "We'll talk later Steph, you have my number?"

"Yeah," she nodded as she watched Chris walk away.

"So you look forward to working with him huh?" Hunter asked. Stephanie turned in his arms and gave him a look. "Not more than working with me right?"

She shook her head and leaned up to kiss him, brushing her hands through his hair. "Of course not Hunter, baby, you know that working with you is my favorite thing to do. Now are you going to stop being an ass and work with us here?"

"You went to your father didn't you?" he asked, staring her straight in the eye. She laughed and gave him a coy look. Every now and then it was nice to have a person who knew you so well, who knew what you would do before you did it. Hunter was that kind of person, and even though they fought quite a bit, she still loved him very much.

"Yes, I did, and he loved the idea."

"I still think it's a piece of shit idea," he said gruffly, turning away from her. Stephanie cradled his face in her palm and turned it towards her so they were looking at each other again. She traced his jaw line with her finger and shook her head.

"Baby, it doesn't mean anything," she told him quietly. "I know that you're apprehensive about it, but it'll all work out for the best. We're just working together, that's all, we have people working together all the time, that doesn't mean anything. It's a job."

"I know, I just worry."

"Why would you ever worry?" she asked, letting him hug her to him. She rested her head on his strong chest and listened to the musical drumbeat of his heart.

"Because I'm always afraid I'm going to lose you."

She laughed at that, "Lose me? Hunter, you have all of me, besides, like I said yesterday, Chris is married, he's happy. There's nothing that's really going to happen between us. You trust me right?"

"Of course."

"Then you need to trust me with this," she told him. "You need to trust that I'm going into this thinking solely about business. Think about the ratings. People are going to want to tune in and see this unfold, which puts you in the spotlight and you love being in the spotlight, don't you baby?"

She knew that appealing to his ego would do the trick. Hunter loved to be the center of attention and if she could make him see that he'd be just that in this storyline, he'd go for it. Sometimes it was so easy to manipulate men into doing what you wanted. She just smiled to herself as she felt Hunter rubbing her back.

"In the spotlight huh?"

"Definitely," she said firmly. "And it's not like it's going to be forever. Nothing in wrestling lasts forever. It's just a for now kind of thing, and besides, this has all been building up, and it's going to blow up at WrestleMania and you and Chris are going to have the best match on the card. You're going to blow everyone else out of the water."

"Well, we were going to do that anyways, if I can count on him."

"You can count on him. And you can count on me to make this storyline great, and that means that I'm going to have to pretend to be with Chris. And I think his wife is okay with it, he didn't even mention her having a problem with it, so I can't imagine that she would. So see, if she, as his wife, can be okay with it, then so can you, right, because you can be a team player."

"I guess, just this once," he told her, giving in. She grinned and looked up at him. He captured her lips in a kiss again, and he could feel how happy she was, and he gave in like he usually did because he loved her too. He loved her and he did want her to be happy, no matter the means that came with that.

"You won't be sorry Hunter, I promise."


	4. Chapter 4

Chris rolled his eyes as he walked away. Here he'd been having a nice conversation with Stephanie, only for Hunter to stick his nose in where it didn't belong. Maybe he wasn't being rational, he knew this, but he didn't exactly appreciate Hunter practically showing off that Stephanie was his right in front of him. What she saw in that man, he would never know.

He walked into his locker room, going and sitting down heavily on the sofa. He pulled out his cell phone, flipping it open, before closing it. Open, and closed. Open, and closed. He sighed, before opening it and dialing his wife's cell phone number. Part of him wondered what was the point? She hadn't even spoken a word to him that morning before he'd left for the show…

After a few rings, she answered. "Hello?"

"Hey, it's me."

"Hey Chris."

He looked down a bit. "Still mad at me?"

She sighed. "Well, there's nothing I can say that's going to make you see things differently…"

"It won't be that bad, Jess, think of it like this… actors sometimes have to do things with other women that aren't their wives, right? This is exactly the same thing," he said, hoping he was finally getting through to her.

"I know, but it's just…"

"Just trust me… it's just business, babe, just business."

"Yeah, I know," she said with another sigh. "I still don't like it though."

"I already told you, it's not going to mean anything," he said with a frown.

"And you're sure that there's no way around it?"

"No, Stephanie told me tonight that Vince approved it, so we're all on board…" he paused for a moment. "Look Jessica, it's like this… I've got you, and Stephanie's got Hunter, okay? And trust me, for her to stick with a guy like that, she has to really care about him."

"And is he okay with this?" she asked curiously.

"Of course not," he answered, somewhat bitterly. "I think he'd prefer to lock Stephanie into a safe or something, because God forbid another man even glance at her, he'd have a heart attack or something."

"See? He doesn't like it either, so why --"

"Jess, baby, he doesn't like it because it's me," he said with a sigh. "You know his thing he has against me… I'm surprised he's not pulling strings for me to lose against Rock at the Rumble, just so he doesn't have to headline Wrestlemania with me."

"Maybe he just doesn't want to see his girlfriend making out with someone else," she reasoned, even though he picked up on the bitter edge in her tone.

"Yeah, maybe, but you know what? At least he's giving this a chance."

"So now it's my fault because I don't want to see this storyline happen? You just said it yourself, Hunter isn't even happy about this." He sighed, rubbing his eyes with his free hand. "Chris, why can't you just see it from my view for a change?"

"Because you're being unreasonable," he argued, suddenly wishing he hadn't called. "I'm telling you that it's not going to mean anything, and you're acting like it will… it's like you don't even trust me," he said, hating the tinge of hurt he felt as those words left him.

"I didn't say that."

"Maybe you don't have to."

"Is that what you think? That I don't trust you?"

"Well what else am I supposed to think?" he snapped. "If you believed me and trusted me, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

"I _do _trust you, Chris…"

"Then what the hell is the problem?"

"I just don't want to see my husband making out with some other girl on my TV screen! Why is that not registering with you? Would you enjoy seeing me with some other guy, pretending to have an affair of all things?"

"First of all, it's not some other girl… it's Stephanie, Stephanie McMahon," he said as he emphasized her name. "She was born into this business, she knows what's good and she's a professional through and through, she's not some random actress we picked up off the street to play this role with me."

"Whatever… I'm done talking about it."

"Fine, whatever," he said with a sigh. "It's obvious we're not going to see eye to eye on this."

"Yeah, I guess we're not," she mumbled, and there was an awkward silence for a moment.

"Alright, well, I should start getting my stuff together so I can get out of here, so I'm gonna let you go," he said absent-mindedly.

"Are you gonna call later?" she asked in a hopeful tone.

"Yeah," he finally answered. "I'll call you later tonight when I get to the hotel."

"Okay… talk to you later then."

"Yeah, bye Jess," he said before flipping his cell phone closed. He held it in his hand for a moment, shaking his head as he did. Why was it so hard for her to see that it was just work for him? He sighed as he stood up, before starting to get his things together.

Around twenty minutes or so later, he was walking down the hallway towards the parking lot, his duffel bag slung around one shoulder. He walked past someone's locker room, and Stephanie's voice somehow drifted over to him as she barked orders at someone. He couldn't help the smile that came to his face at the sound of her voice as he remembered their earlier conversation. Working with her was going to be fun, he could already tell.

But then again, they had always had a blast working together… there were very few people he enjoyed working with more than Stephanie McMahon, and that was a fact.

That was also probably a big reason why he was keeping his problems with Jessica away from Stephanie. He knew that if he mentioned how badly his wife was taking to this storyline, Stephanie would want to scratch it, and he didn't want that. This was his first main event spot at Wrestlemania, and he wanted it to be perfect. For all he knew, this could probably be his one and only shot to main event the biggest show of the year, and he was not about to blow it just because his wife was insecure about a storyline of all things.

Suddenly, a hand grasped his arm and he was yanked into a side hallway before he knew what was happening. He turned in surprise to see who had unceremoniously interrupted his train of thought, and found himself looking at Hunter. He sucked at his teeth a bit, willing his temper to stay in check as he looked up at the older man.

"Something I can help you with, Trips?" he said in a cool tone, readjusting his duffel bag a bit.

"I think we should talk," Hunter said, folding his arms in front of him. Chris sighed.

"About what?" he questioned, although he had a good feeling he knew where this was going.

"About this affair storyline you proposed," Hunter answered evenly. Chris nodded slowly.

"It's been approved… what is there to talk about? Oh man, it _is_ between me and Steph, right?" he asked, feigning concern. "Because if you had it switched to me and you, well, I might have to raise a red flag out of concern…"

"Cut the crap, Jericho," Hunter cut in, and the Canadian tensed a bit. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm gonna keep a close eye on you with Stephanie."

"Is that a fact?" Chris asked, tilting his head a bit. "And does Stephanie know that you're going to be our official babysitter?"

"Boy, you have a great sense of humor, don't you?" Hunter asked dryly.

"So I'm told," Chris answered with a shrug.

"Look man… I don't see how this is going to get us more heat for our match than any other ways we could have gone about it," he said, and raised his hand just as Chris was about to open his mouth to comment. "But, it's been approved, I'm not an idiot and I get it."

"Could've fooled me," Chris mumbled, and Hunter scowled at that.

"What'd you say?"

"Good for me," he said in a louder voice. He maintained his ground as Hunter leaned in a bit closer to him, and he instinctively clenched his fists.

"Consider this… a friendly warning," Hunter said in a low tone as Chris raised his chin a bit. "You do this storyline, and do what you have to do to get by… but you better remember that at the end of the day, she's my girl, and she comes home with me."

"You don't say!" Chris exclaimed, his eyes widening. "You and Steph together! Since when?" Hunter exhaled angrily, making the Canadian snicker. "Seriously Trips, if you don't relax, you're going to give yourself a stroke and then who am I going to main event with at Wrestlemania?"

"You should just be happy that you're even set to main event," Hunter said evenly, and Chris nodded.

"I am, trust me, with someone like you backing me up, I don't have much of a choice now do I?" Chris asked sarcastically. "Now do you have a point? Because if you don't, I really should start making my way over to my hotel."

"Yeah, I have a point."

"Yeah, what's that?"

"Take it easy, man, we're just talking," Hunter said, looking at Chris curiously. "You look tense, that's not good… you need to ease up a bit."

Chris took a deep, dramatic breath, before exhaling slowly. "There, I feel better now, so what's your point?" he demanded, and Hunter attempted to wrap an arm casually around his shoulders, but he was having none of it and backed out of the attempt. "Get to the point, Hunter," he repeated, wishing he would just get it out so he could leave.

"Alright, fine, since you don't want me to be friendly about it, I'll get to the point," Hunter said, a frown on his face as he smacked on his gum.

"While I'm young, please," Chris sneered.

"It's like this, Jericho… Stephanie's my girlfriend, and I love her…"

"Touching…"

"So you better be careful with what you do and where you put your hands on her, you get what I'm saying?" Hunter asked, poking Chris in the chest.

"Are you threatening me?" Chris asked as his eyes narrowed. "Is this your way of threatening me, Hunter? Because I don't take kindly to threats."

"Why would you take it that way?" he asked smugly. "Is there something you feel I should threaten you about?"

"I don't know," Chris said with a shrug. "Is there something you feel that you should be scared of with us doing this storyline? Do you think I'm going to start putting the moves on your girl behind your back? Does this mean nothing to you?" he said as he raised his left hand which showed off his wedding ring.

"I find it hard to believe that your wife is okay with all of this," Hunter said with a scowl, and Chris laughed.

"Trust me, she is," he lied smoothly. Hunter was the absolute _last _person he would ever open up to about Jessica's feelings regarding this storyline. It would give him more than enough reason and perhaps justification to try and get the storyline changed, and he wasn't having it. He could deal with his wife, and sooner or later, she'd come around. He was sure of it.

"Again, hard to believe."

"No one's asking you to believe it," Chris snapped as he lowered his hand. "Does Stephanie know about this little meeting we're having right now?"

"No, she doesn't, and I suggest you keep it that way."

"Again with the threats?"

"It's not a threat, it's a suggestion," Hunter said as he stepped up towards Chris. "I can give you a threat, if that's what you want."

"Look," Chris said in a low tone as the two stared each other down. "You don't like me, okay, I get it. I don't get what the fuck your problem is with me, but I'm done caring. We're gonna do this, okay, we're gonna go through with this storyline whether you like it or not. And quite frankly, you're acting like a little bitch right now," he added, and Hunter's eyes darkened at this.

"Oh really?" he said dangerously, but Chris just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, I'm married Hunter, what else do you want? You love Stephanie and that's fine, and wouldn't you know it? I love my wife. This is business, pure and simple, nothing but business. I'm not trying to pull one over you, I'm not trying to steal Stephanie from under your nose, so you need to just deal with it. And you also need to back the hell up from me," he said, not liking the way Hunter was coming off to him. He wasn't intimidated by Hunter, not in the slightest. His training with the Hart family had more than prepared him to deal with anyone, so he knew that if he had to, he could bring Hunter down in no time.

"I don't think I like your tone, Jericho…"

"Deal with it," Chris challenged, his fists clenched and ready for action in case Hunter wanted to go right there.

Hunter scowled and was about to say something when his cell phone started ringing. He looked at the name and put it the phone on silence, not bothering to answer.

"Now, if that was Stephanie, then you're not really showing how much you love her by not answering her calls, you know?"

"For your information, it _was _Stephanie, but I'm not exactly done here," Hunter said with that same scowl on his face.

"No, that's where you're wrong… we _are _done, there's nothing left to say," Chris said snidely. "And you better call her back, before she sees you the way I see you and leaves you hanging high and dry."

"Never gonna happen."

"We're done here," Chris said, turning around to leave before Hunter grabbed him by the arm. Chris groaned loudly. "What now?" he demanded, his back to Hunter. The man was infuriating to him, absolutely infuriating.

"Remember what I said," Hunter warned as Chris pulled his arm free.

"Whatever, I don't know what she sees in you anyways," Chris mumbled under his breath as he walked away. His mood had taken a downturn after his conversation with Jessica, but Hunter had just managed to kill his mood entirely. And he wasn't lying when he said he didn't see what Stephanie saw in him. She was such a genuinely nice person, and he had always gotten along really well with her. She was smart, she had a great sense of humor, and she was just fun to talk to. Thinking about her brought a small smile to his face.

At least he had Stephanie on his side.


	5. Chapter 5

For Stephanie, there wasn't a whole lot that felt better than being in the ring.

Although this time was a little strange, she had never gone out there to announce that she was pregnant. Not that she really was pregnant, which would've been a disaster. Yes, at this point in her life, where she was on top of the world, both professionally and personally, a baby would be a disaster, but as a catalyst for a storyline that would headline WrestleMania, well, it didn't get much better.

She was sobbing, because when you make a confession after your "husband" has just bitched you out, sobbing is almost a formality. Check it off the list and then go for the jugular. The fans weren't expecting it, she knew it, and they sure as hell wouldn't expect where this was all going to end up, and that was half the fun of it. As she scrunched her face up into a grimace of sorts, and through her blurred eyes saw Hunter leaving the ring, she knew now was the moment, now was the exact moment that she was going to start the storyline that would be bigger than any other she had ever been a part of.

Stephanie was definitely one for hyperbole.

"Hunter, it's because I'm…I'm…pregnant!" she shouted for the world to hear, and hear her they did as the crowd quieted down into a mere murmur, stunned by the twist that had developed before their eyes. Hunter played it off quite well from where she was standing. He had stopped, half turned and she continued, "Hunter, I didn't want to do this in front of everybody, I couldn't help it, Hunter. That's why I've been so moody, that's why I've been so argumentative with you…I…"

And here is where Hunter turned and acted the role of the stunned recipient of the news. He was a little more receptive to the storyline now, but having her naked for most of the weekend helped in that. She believed in this storyline and if she had to go for a record for staying in bed to get Hunter to believe in it too, then that's what she had to do. She just thanked the Lord she had charm to spare.

She continued her little speech amid the crowd's chants of "bullshit." Well, you couldn't win them all, and she had the reputation of being a slut, and for the first time realized, she was going to live up to that expectation. She wanted to laugh at that, but instead, collected herself, "Hunter, it doesn't matter anybody else thinks, but I know how bad you want to be a dad, and you know how badly I want to be a mom, and we are finally going to be a family, that's why we need to renew our wedding vows, that's why, so we can be a family all together. Hunter, don't do it for you, don't do it for me, do it our baby."

Stephanie had never wanted to cackle more, and she loved getting into her character, crimped hair, tight clothing and all. She pressed her hand against her abdomen as Hunter turned fully to her, stunned and shocked. As the crowd chanted, "It's not yours," Hunter bore down on her and then lifted her up into the air. They made out in the middle of the ring for a little while before going backstage.

Stephanie was pumped up on adrenaline and jumped around on her feet a bit as Hunter trailed behind her, a little more subdued. "Did you see that out there, Hunter? Did you feel it? Did you?"

"Feel what exactly?" he asked, looking around as if looking for something to pop out at them. She grasped both his hands in hers and held them tightly.

"The crowd, everything, us, how it came off, I think it came off so well, I mean, with me being all boo-hoo about you not wanting to renew our vows and then completely turning that around when I said I was pregnant, we played it to perfection. I swear, they never saw it coming."

"Yeah, it was really something," he said dully and she frowned as she looked at him.

"I thought you were okay with this now," she told him, lowering her voice so that nobody would hear the potential fight brewing. Much of her and Hunter's love life was already out there and at some point, she did want a little privacy.

"I am okay with it, I'm just tired or something," Hunter said, but he was really thinking about the implications that this pregnancy angle was going to produce. If everything went according to plan (and he had to admit, he kind of didn't want it to go according to plan), then Chris would be the potential father of this baby, if there was a baby at all.

"Are you sure?" she asked, taking her right hand and running it over his face, "Are you getting sick or something?"

"No, not sick, just tired," he shrugged, pulling her into his body. "Do you want to go back to the hotel now and just hang out, or lie around, do something together?"

"Not right this second," she told him, hugging him too. "Do you think it went well out there? And tell me the truth, tell me if I sucked and I wasn't believable, I can handle it."

"You were great as usual," he said, kissing the top of her head. Stephanie sighed and let this new feeling of contentment pass through her. Couple that with the adrenaline and she was floating on cloud nine at the moment. It didn't get much better than this, a good man by her side and a good storyline to be acted out.

Stephanie was unaware that, just over her shoulder, Hunter had spotted Chris walking over towards them. Stephanie felt Hunter's grip on her tighten a little bit and she just hugged him tighter in response. Hunter stared down Chris, who rolled his eyes to himself. Hunter had issued that warning to Chris previously and if Chris knew what was good for him, he would heed Hunter's warning. Hunter had been with Stephanie over a year now and he'd be damned if he was going to lose her, or everything that went along with her.

"Okay Hunter, baby, can't breathe," Stephanie giggled as she tried to pull away. She eventually did so, though Hunter let her go reluctantly. She gazed up at him, "What's up with you tonight? Do you want me so bad you can't even stop touching me?"

What the hell, let her believe that, he thought before answering, "Yeah, seeing you out there, and what you're wearing, I can't get enough of you."

She laughed and teasingly stepped on her tiptoes to brush her lips against his mouth. He pulled her in for a deeper kiss, but she pulled away at the last moment, winking at him before turning around, intending to go grab their things and head to the hotel for a little more discreet fun in their hotel room. Instead, she saw Chris and rushed over to him, much to Hunter's chagrin as he watched his girlfriend go over to the man he despised most in this world.

"Hey Chris, did you see us out there?" Stephanie asked, sounding for all the world a young girl who was looking for approval from everyone and anyone. But in a way, that's what Stephanie was, she was younger than both Chris and Hunter, and in some ways, she still was young and naïve and she certainly had no clue the kind of asshole she was dating.

"Yeah, I saw, you guys did a great job," he answered easily, nodding to Hunter over her shoulder. "Nice job out there, Trip."

"Yeah, thanks," Hunter mumbled, "Steph, can we get out of here?"

"Hold on, I'm talking to the last piece to this puzzle," she said, pretty much ignoring the tone in his voice. If only Stephanie knew that Hunter had warned Chris about this storyline, she probably wouldn't be as receptive to her boyfriend right now.

But Chris wasn't going to be the one to spill those beans. No, Chris knew when to keep his mouth shut and he wasn't the kind of guy who was going to butt into someone else's relationship. So he kept his mouth shut even though Stephanie should know what kind of scum she was dating. The kind of scum who probably didn't even trust his own girlfriend. Stephanie had a good head on her shoulders, but when it came to her taste in boyfriends, it was sketchy at best.

"Stephanie, I'm going to go get our things so we can leave as soon as you're done here," Hunter told her.

"Yeah, sure, okay," Stephanie nodded. She turned her back to him, and in doing so didn't catch the dirty look that Hunter sent in Chris's direction. There was a lot of malice in that look, and Hunter silently let Chris know that he had both eyes on him.

"So…"

"I'm sorry about Hunter," Stephanie sighed. Chris briefly wondered if she knew about the warning. "He's just really tired."

"Is that what he's saying?" Chris asked.

"Why, do you think he's lying?" Stephanie challenged. Chris shrugged lazily and Stephanie shook her head. "I don't know, but I'm just on such a high right now. It's finally happening, are you excited, this was your brainchild."

"Yeah, I'm excited," he answered, and she grinned at him, a grin he found himself returning a second later.

"Good, good, I wouldn't want you to be completely not into this storyline, I don't need to be the only one behind it, besides my dad of course, and your wife, since Hunter told me that you said she didn't have a problem with it," Stephanie responded. "So I guess it really is just Hunter who's being the ass."

"Well, if the shoe fits," Chris said.

Stephanie laughed and hit in him the arm, "Oh come on, you know that's my boyfriend. He just worries about me is all. He's just…he likes to protect me, be the big, strong protector, that's all. I'm sure you play the same role for your wife when the opportunity arises."

If Stephanie wanted to believe that Hunter was protecting her that would be her error. She generally liked to believe in the good in people. Stephanie was a lot different from the image she projected, and that's why people backstage liked her. She did see the good in people and she tried her hardest at what she did. But if she saw Hunter as her protector, she was severely wrong. Hunter loved her yes, but protected her, no, that wasn't a title that he held.

"Yeah, I get what you're saying," he said, not commenting on anything else that she said, and not wanting to stick his foot out there and make her angry.

"Well, it'll be okay, you know. Our part of the story is going to come up fast and furious though. I don't know how you feel about…um…wow, how do I put this?" Stephanie paused and twirled a piece of crimped hair around her finger. "In the interest of professionalism…we should probably…practice, wow, that word sounds so bad and inappropriate for this conversation. I just think that…okay, let me put it this way, do you remember our other two kisses?"

"I seem to have a recollection of them, yes," he chuckled, like how could he forget them really?

"Yeah, and do you remember how we…set them up so that they were timed out well and everything. Like with the first one, how you and I practiced how you would hold me and then drop me, to get the maximum effect?"

"Yes, I remember that," he nodded along with her rambling.

"Yeah, well, good. Because I was thinking, and this is totally in your court, totally, but I was thinking that maybe we should have a meeting in which we try to come up with ways in which we look like a couple," she finished, finally, and feeling a slight blush creep up onto her cheek. It wasn't the practicing with Chris that made her blush, but just the fact that she had to ask him if they needed to practice being a couple. There were some things in the business that came naturally, her dumping coffee on Lillian the other week didn't need practice, or her giving her father a present on Christmas, that didn't need practicing, but when you had two people with no experience being together, they do say that practice makes perfect.

"Do you think we need to?"

"Well, we could probably think of couple-like things to do, holding hands, hugging, kissing, you know, those kinds of things," she said, starting to feel a little uncomfortable. The adrenaline was starting to ebb and in its place came the awkwardness she had been feeling around Chris recently. The idea of him touching her and her touching him, it was enough to make any girl nervous.

Stephanie was not blind and she wasn't going to pretend to be. She knew that Chris was a good-looking guy; they banked on those good looks more often than not. Did she find him attractive? Yes, she did, she wasn't going to lie. Did she want anything romantic to happen between them backstage? Absolutely not, but she wasn't going to deny the fact that Chris was a good-looking man with whom, for all the world to see, she was going to mimic having an affair with.

"I'm game for a brainstorming session," he responded.

"Brainstorming, that's good, I like that word a lot better than practicing," she told him. "But I want to be realistic. I don't want to look like two people thrown together for a storyline, you know what I mean."

"I know," he told her. "And I agree, I want to play it like it's meant to be played. I want to look like we're having an affair."

"Then I'm not stupid in wanting to…brainstorm?"

"No, but I'd run it by Hunter if I were you," Chris said.

Stephanie rolled her eyes, "He's not my babysitter."

Chris recalled himself saying the same thing, or at least something of the same thing to Hunter during their "meeting." Regardless, Stephanie brought out her cell phone, and Chris almost wanted to tell her that Hunter wasn't going to answer. He'd put money down on the fact that he wouldn't answer.

"What are you doing?"

"Telling Hunter there's a change of plans. If you're not busy we can get it over with so by the time we really get hot and heavy in our storyline, things aren't going to be so awkward. I don't want to go to kiss you in front of everyone and have our noses bump or have to figure out where to put my hands," she giggled, giving him a look that made him laugh despite himself.

"I'm not busy," he told her.

"Great," she said, dialing Hunter's number. She waited for a moment and then growled under her breath. "God, that man infuriates me sometimes. He never answers his damn phone. It's like he does this on purpose. Oh well, let's go."

"Your stuff?" Chris asked.

"Oh, Hunter will get it, let's go." Stephanie started walking down the hallway, leaving Chris behind her. He stared at her back for a second and shrugged before following her.

He could always claim it was her idea.


	6. Chapter 6

Chris wasn't stupid. He knew when he came up with the idea of an affair storyline with Stephanie that there was a huge physical aspect that came along with it. He had thought about it for a long time, knowing that he was going to have to be constantly touching and kissing her, and that Jessica and Hunter would hate it. Especially Hunter, who had taken to the storyline more or less how Chris had imagined he would. It wasn't a surprise.

What _was _a surprise was Stephanie's suggestion that they practice beforehand. He snickered a little at the thought. He didn't think he needed practice, but if it made her feel more comfortable, then he wasn't going to object.

"Hurry up, Chris, you're dragging."

He looked up from the ground to see Stephanie standing at the door to her office. She was leaning slightly up against the door, one hand at the handle and the other hand on her hip as she waited for him. He gave her a curious look as he walked up to her, putting his hands in his pockets.

"We're going to do this in your office?" he asked, and she shrugged.

"Sure, why not?" she said nonchalantly as she opened the door and headed inside, holding the door open for him. "Unless you have a suggestion?"

"No, this is fine," he said as he followed her in. He stood there and rocked on his heels a bit as she walked over to her desk. Stephanie then began to clear her desk of all the paperwork that was randomly scattered on it, and he couldn't help but chuckle as he watched. She looked over her shoulder at him and gave him a questioning look.

"What's so funny?" she asked. He just shrugged.

"Nothing," he answered with a hint of a smile. She gave him a disbelieving look, and his smile grew as he looked down. "You just don't seem to have inherited the neat freak genes that your dad and brother have, that's all."

"Oh, yeah," she said with a laugh as she went back to clearing off her desk. "You just haven't gotten to know the real me yet, you'll soon find out that I'm definitely not the most organized person in the world. I think I drive Hunter up the wall," she said as she rolled her eyes, gathering up all her paperwork as she walked around the desk. Chris watched with intrigue as she just deposited all the paperwork into a random drawer, before straightening and giving him a satisfied look.

"I hope all of that wasn't important."

"Not a chance, my dad has all of that. I'll go through it all later at the hotel anyways," she said as she waved it off. He nodded, before taking a deep breath and rubbing his hands together.

"So, I guess we should get started."

"Yeah, let's get started," she said, walking back around the desk. He watched as she leaned back onto it, folding her arms over in front of her. "So what kind of things do you think we should practice?" she asked, and he smiled as she fell back into her professional McMahon tone.

"I don't know, this was your idea," he said with a laugh. "You tell me."

"Practi – well, brainstorming was my idea, but this entire storyline was _your _idea," she reminded him, and he shrugged.

"You're right, it was my idea, but I don't think I really need practice," he said with a smirk that was very much like his trademark smirk he wore for the fans.

"Oh really?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Just my two cents."

"So why did you agree?" she asked in a curious tone, tilting her head as she looked at him.

"Well, they do say that practice makes perfect, right?" he said with an easy smile. "Plus, I want you to be comfortable, and if we have to do this so that you don't freak out when I touch you in front of millions of people, then this is what we're going to do."

Stephanie just looked at him for a few seconds, and he couldn't exactly read the look on her face as she did. Finally though, a hint of a smile came to her as well as she nodded.

"Alright then, so since the ball is in my court, I think we should just start getting comfortable with the touching and the contact. So as you put it, I don't freak out if you touch me and I don't expect it," she said as she walked over to him. He lowered his arms and straightened, unconsciously licking his lips as he watched her come closer. She laughed at that, and he gave her a curious look.

"What's so funny?"

"You are, for being so confident earlier, you sure look tense right now," she noted, and he blinked in surprise at that.

"Me, tense? I'm not tense, it's just I don't know what we're doing, that's all, so I can't really prepare because I don't know what the plan is here. I didn't know what you had in mind, and I kind of still -"

"I was kidding," she said, snickering a bit. "Are you nervous?"

"No, why should I be nervous? There's no reason to be nervous, we're just working on a storyline that I came up with, no big deal," he said as he shrugged.

"You sure do ramble a lot for not being nervous," she said as she reached for his hand. He instinctively gave it to her, acutely aware of how warm her hand was in his. She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, leaning in a little closer to him as if about to tell him a secret. "Relax, Chris, it's just me. We've worked together too many times for us to be uncomfortable around each other. Hell, we've already kissed twice, right? This is nothing."

"I know, I'm not nervous," he said, and she gave him an incredulous look, making him laugh. "I'm serious, you just… I just didn't know what you were going to do, that's all, you didn't give me a heads up or anything," he admitted, and that was true. For a second, he had thought she was going to walk right up to him and just go for the kill, go for the kiss, right in one shot. He was comfortable with this storyline, and he was comfortable with the idea of kissing Stephanie. He just needed that heads up, so he could be prepared. It had nothing to do with being nervous.

"Is that what it was?"

"Yeah."

"Okay then, how about you go sit on the couch?" she suggested, and he shrugged at that. Letting go of her hand, he went over and sat down, looking up at her expectantly. "We'll probably be doing some commentary together during the storyline, so I was thinking when we're sitting together, I should probably…" she gave him a look, and he smiled.

"Yeah, I get what you're saying, come here so we can do this," he teased, hoping to put her more at ease. He also wanted to prove once and for all that he wasn't nervous about this storyline. Stephanie didn't make him nervous. She was attractive, yes, and he could even go a step further and say she was definitely gorgeous, but he was married and this was business. He was going to prove it to everyone, to Stephanie, to Jessica, even to Hunter.

But first, that meant proving it to himself.

He reclined back on the sofa and watched her as she headed over to him. He gave her a nod as she turned and slowly sat down so that she was on his lap. She moved around a bit, trying to get comfortable, but she was tense and he could feel it.

"Good thing we're practicing," she mumbled, and he snickered. He felt like he was Santa and she was a little girl who was sitting on his lap and posing for a picture or something. It didn't feel natural to him. Without giving a warning, he straightened a bit and put an arm around her waist from behind, pulling her closer against him as he leaned back a bit.

"It's definitely a good thing," he agreed, and she forced a laugh as he held her close to him.

"Yes, definitely a good thing," she echoed, as she once again tried making herself comfortable.

"Stephanie, you're trying too hard," he told her, not letting her go. She shifted around a bit, and they both shuffled awkwardly.

"It just doesn't feel right," she said as she frowned. He could already see the wheels turning in her head, wondering how she could fix how they were sitting so they could both be comfortable.

"You're seriously over thinking this," he told her as he laughed. "Here, allow me," he said as he took one of her hands in his. He then lifted her arm and put it around his shoulders, simultaneously drawing her closer into him.

"Oh, that really helps," she said sincerely, and he could hear a bit of relief in her voice. He still had one arm wrapped loosely around her waist as she leaned into him. He smiled a little as he felt her start to relax.

"There, see? This isn't so bad, right?" he asked, and she looked at him and gave him a thankful smile.

"No, it's not that bad," she agreed, before suddenly standing. He leaned forward a bit, looking at her with slight concern.

"What's wrong? Did I do something?" he asked, wondering if maybe he had pulled her too close to him or something like that. He also couldn't help but feel a tinge of cold at the sudden loss of her warmth, but that was irrelevant if he made her feel uncomfortable.

"No, not at all, you're perfect, Chris," she added with a nod. "I just want to do it again, and take less than ten minutes to do it this time," she said with a laugh, and he nodded, feeling relieved.

"Good, I didn't scare you away then," he said with a lazy smile, leaning back into the sofa and once again looking at her expectantly. She gave him an in-character smirk and took him by surprise when it only took her seconds to find her comfortable position on his lap. He immediately pulled her closer to him, wrapping his arm around her waist.

"Are you comfortable?" she asked, easily putting her arm back around his shoulders. She rubbed his shoulder a bit, leaning more into him.

"Yeah, I'm good," he said, loving the way she felt like she was completely at ease. "You definitely feel more relaxed now, I think we're making progress, Ms. McMahon," he teased, and she nodded, a proud look on her face.

"See, this is nothing," she said with a smile. "I knew it would be good working with you again, and I'm really glad we're going to be practicing. This feels a lot more comfortable than the first time…"

Chris nodded when appropriate, but suddenly found himself focusing more on her consistent rubbing of his shoulder than on what she was saying. Her touch was light, and he didn't think she was aware of the movement, since she was looking straight ahead as if there was an invisible camera in front of them. That didn't stop her touch from easing his somewhat sore muscles though. She was slowly moving her hand back until it was behind his neck, where she continued rubbing his skin gently. He closed his eyes at the contact, leaning his head back to get more of her touch.

"I also don't know what Hunter's problem is, I mean this isn't that bad… sure, we haven't practiced kissing yet, but I'm sure we'll be fine. It's not like we've never done it before, you know what I mean? Your wife is okay with it, right?"

"Uh huh," he said, before feeling her rubbing stop. He opened his eyes slowly to find her giving him a slightly amused look.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he said as he gave her a charming smile. "You were just hitting the spot, that's all."

"Are you sore or something?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Are you sure? Don't lie to me, Chris," she warned, and he laughed.

"I'm fine, relax," he reassured her. "So since we got this out of the way, we can graduate to something new, right? Maybe something a little more risqué, you know, since your dad loves that kind of thing."

She rolled her eyes, "Yeah, don't remind me."

"What do you want to do now?" he asked, and she thought about it for a minute, scrunching up her face as she fell into deep thought. He merely observed her, noting the focused look of concentration on her face. It made him grin a bit, making him feel good that she was really on board with this and wanted to see it done right.

"Well, what would you do if there was a camera on us right now? What's natural to you?" she asked, turning her gaze back on him.

"Like if we were really together?" he asked curiously, and she nodded.

"Yeah, do what's totally natural for you to do. We're probably going to have to get used to just thinking on our feet out there, because it's going to be hard to plan every move," she said, and he nodded.

"You're right, it's probably just easier if we get in the moment," he mused, and she smirked.

"But not too into the moment, just enough for the fans."

"Oh, of course," he said, hating how Hunter's voice was ringing in his ears. "I'd never get too much into the moment, I just meant…"

"I was kidding," she said with a laugh. "So what would you do?"

"Well, if you were really my girl, I'd probably be kissing you nonstop," he said impishly, and she snickered.

"Alright… go ahead," she said, turning towards him expectantly. "We might as well start somewhere."

He looked at her for a moment, and she gave him a nod, encouraging him. Reaching up, he brushed her hair back over her shoulder slowly, and she visibly shuddered at this.

"Are you okay?" he asked, trying not to laugh. "I barely even touched you."

"I know, I'm good now," she said as she exhaled deeply, before turning her face back towards his and closing her eyes. "Alright, I'm ready. Let's see it, Chris."

He hesitated for a moment, before wondering what the big deal was. She was right, they had already done this before. Not once, but twice. And yet he knew that this would be different. How different, he wasn't quite sure – but he was about to find out. He leaned forward and tilted his head a bit, closing his eyes as he leaned in more to kiss her. His lips had barely grazed hers when she pulled back, laughing as she did. He opened his eyes and gave her a curious look.

"What happened?" he asked, and she shook her head.

"It's just, I don't know, weird to think that I have to kiss you that way," she said, smiling even though he could see the hint of blushing started to creep up to her face.

"But we've kissed before," he reminded her, and she nodded.

"Yeah, but that was different, that was only for a few seconds, and that wasn't nearly as involved as our kisses are going to be now," she said, her blush becoming more and more noticeable. He nodded, understanding where she was coming from.

"Alright, let's do baby steps then," he said, and she raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

He once again reached up to her hair, smirking a bit at the hairdo she had chosen for the evening. He tilted his head and leaned in lower this time, going in towards her neck and stopping just about an inch away from her.

"If we were being natural, and you were really my girl, I'd do something like this…" he breathed out, catching the smell of her shampoo lingering as she nodded.

"Go ahead," she said in a softer tone, and he closed his eyes and leaned in. He gave her a light kiss before she pulled away, shuddering and yet laughing at the same time. "God Chris, that tickles," she said, and he rolled his eyes.

"That's not good then, you don't want to start laughing every time I try to kiss you," he told her, and she nodded before clearing her throat and closing her eyes.

"Okay, try again. I'm ready now."

He watched her for a few moments, wanting to make sure she was relaxed. Finally deciding that this was about as good as it was going to get, he leaned in again, closing his eyes as his lips found the skin of her neck. He was surprised at how soft the skin was as he started kissing her. The feel of her warm skin along with the light smell of her strawberry shampoo was enough to make him feel a little dizzy, and making him forget the fact that he wasn't kissing his wife. He was vaguely aware of Stephanie's tightening grip on his shoulder as he went from dropping light kisses to gently sucking on the skin of her neck. She had a sweet taste, sweet and different…

"Stephanie, are you ready to… what the fuck is this?"

And just like that, Stephanie was up and out of Chris's lap almost before he realized what was going on. It took him a few seconds to realize that he wasn't kissing her anymore, and took him another second to realize why.

"Hunter, baby, we were just trying to get comfortable with each other for the storyline," Stephanie said as Chris finally regained his bearings and stood up behind her.

"Yeah Trips, we're shooting for realism over here," he added, noting how Hunter looked like he was fuming as he glared at them both.

"Realism huh?" he said, as he gave Chris a dirty look. Chris rolled his eyes, before reaching to Stephanie's arm from behind.

"That was pretty good, but I think I should probably go call Jess now," he told her, not wanting to be in the same room as Hunter right at that moment. The man just pissed him off, and he knew that Stephanie could handle him much better than he could.

"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow for Smackdown," she said, giving him an easy smile, and yet he caught the slightly apologetic look in her eye. He just nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, see you tomorrow," he said, returning her smile as he turned and headed towards the door. He completely ignored Hunter, walking right past him and out of the room as if he wasn't even there. The less he saw of that man, the better.

Walking back towards his locker room, he tried to remember when was the last time he had called his wife. He groaned at the thought that he'd go back to get his cell phone only to find tons of missed calls from her. She still wasn't taking well to this storyline at all, and so he knew that telling her about his… "brainstorming" session with Stephanie probably wouldn't go over that well. It was probably best to keep it to himself and let the arguments stem only from the on-screen things he and Stephanie were going to do.

After all, what she didn't know wouldn't hurt her.


	7. Chapter 7

"Hunter, come on!"

"Come on what?" he asked, still walking quickly in front of her. She was lucky that he had let her in the car after what he had walked in on earlier, but now she was trying to keep up with him and he was quickly gaining space between them with his long strides.

"Will you stop?" she pleaded, as he kept walking. He wandered over to the bank of elevators and pushed the button a dozen times with hard, quick jabs. He tapped his foot impatiently, altering looks between the lights on the elevators and where Stephanie was. He grumbled to himself when she caught up; he had been hoping to get into the elevator and leave her behind.

"Hunter," she began again, her voice stern but sympathetic. "Will you just talk to me?"

"What's there to talk about?"

"Oh, I don't know, global warming, illegal immigration, you know, light topics like that," Stephanie said sarcastically. "It wasn't what you thought it was."

"Wait, so Chris wasn't kissing your neck, that wasn't what I saw, wow, I really should go to the eye doctor," Hunter said sarcastically as Stephanie stood there and folded her arms over her chest.

"Don't go the sanctimonious route with me, Hunter," Stephanie scolded him, giving him the evil eye. "I've told you what Chris and I were doing, whether or not you choose to believe that is your own choice, but if you think that I'm going to stand here and _beg_ for your forgiveness, than you are sadly mistaken."

"Oh, and how the hell am _I_ the bad guy in all of this? I walk in on my girlfriend making out with another guy, a _married_ guy," Hunter pointed out. Stephanie rolled her eyes at this and scoffed a little bit as she shook her head.

"Excuse me for wanting authenticity, Hunter," she spat out. "We were practicing, we're actors, Hunter, we act for the cameras. Movie stars do it all the time. They practice loves scenes and kissing and stunts, that's what we were doing. I don't love Chris, he's a friend and nothing more, and if you choose to believe that it was any more than that, it's your problem, not mine."

"Thank God I'm not sharing a hotel room with you tonight," he muttered.

"Oh, and why not?" she wondered.

"I'm sleeping in Shawn's room," Hunter said, going into the elevator that had mercifully opened. He pushed the "close door" button before Stephanie could react, but she managed to slip through the door just as it was closing, almost getting her shoe caught in it. She tugged herself free and glared at Hunter, who was snickering.

"Oh, is this funny to you?" Stephanie asked him angrily. He nodded and she glared at him, sending daggers into his skull. "Look, I know that you don't like this storyline, but we're going ahead with it whether you like it or not. I have resigned myself to making this believable. I didn't go apeshit on you when Trish had her ass up against your crotch for your storyline, so don't get your fucking panties in a twist over this!"

"Don't yell at me because you got caught!"

"Doing nothing!" she yelled back at him. "God, we were doing nothing. It wasn't like we were having sex, God, we didn't even kiss or anything, you are blowing this way out of proportion!"

"Oh, so just because there was no sex, I'm supposed to be all gung-ho about this, did you see where his lips were, Stephanie? Oh wait, you were too busy with your eyes closed enjoying him and his lips being all over you."

"You know what, any way I put it, any way that I say what was going on, you're going to twist my words and make it ugly because you have a problem with this storyline. Let me lay out the next couple of months for us. Chris and I are going to do something, probably nothing huge, and you're going to fly off the handle. I'm going to talk to him, and you're going to fly off the handle. Anything I say and do is going to be misconstrued and you are going to _fly off the handle_!"

Stephanie reached her floor and she huffed off, leaving Hunter in her wake. She dragged her suitcase behind her as she stomped down the hallway and to her door. She didn't hear footsteps behind her so she figured that Hunter was indeed going to Shawn's room and she was glad because if she had to spend another minute with him, she was going to start choking him. She went into her room and the second thing she did after putting her suitcase away was pull off her shoes and throw them angrily at the wall, letting it hit with a loud thud and fall to the floor. She was so incredibly keyed right now and pissed off to a tee.

"Calm down Stephanie," she said to herself as she brushed her fingers through her long and unfortunately crimped hair. She hated wearing it like this, but for some reason it had been deemed that crimped hair equaled sympathetic, or something like that. She went into the bathroom with her toiletries bag and brought out a brush and a hair tie. She combed her hair out, a calming thing with her and then pulled it back neatly, staring at her face in the mirror.

The room was too quiet, she thought to herself as she stood staring in the mirror. It was too quiet because her big oaf of a boyfriend had decided to walk in at an inopportune moment. She could tell herself now, when she was just by herself, that perhaps, for a moment, she had gotten too carried away in Chris's lips on her skin. It wasn't that she was attracted to Chris, because she wasn't. She recognized that he was a good-looking man, but it was just the way his lips felt on her skin. In the heat of the moment, she wouldn't have cared if it was the Big Show kissing her neck, it just felt good.

She went back into the bedroom and went to grab her briefcase. If she was going to spend the night alone, she could get away with doing a little bit of work in the interim from now until she went to bed. But as she went to open her briefcase, she remembered that she hadn't only wanted Chris in her locker room for their "brainstorming" session, but also to give him tomorrow's script. She ran her hand across her forehead. She needed to give this to Chris so that he knew what he was going to be doing on the show tomorrow. She sighed and grabbed it before slipping her feet into some flip-flops and walking out of the room and down the lobby.

Because she didn't know what room Chris was staying in, she was forced to go down to the lobby and ask the reception desk. She brought her ID with her in case they decided to be annoying and not tell her where one of her employees was staying. She had had this encounter before in other hotels, so she was certainly prepared for the fight.

However, she wouldn't need a fight as she looked to a sports bar situated off the end of the lobby. Sitting there watching some sports highlight show was Chris. Beer in hand, she watched as he took a long swig of it and then pressed it against his forehead, like he was hot or something. She found that a curious move, but pushed it out of her mind as the relief that she wouldn't have to deal with hotel personnel pushed its way into her head. She walked over to him and sat down next to him, startling him out of whatever he was thinking about.

"God, you scared me," he said, putting his beer down.

"Yeah, I guess I have that effect on people," she snickered as she set the script down on the bar and gestured for the bartender. "Hi, yeah, can I get a lemon drop please?"

"Sure thing," the bartender told her as he went to make her drink.

"Lemon drop? What the hell are you trying to forget?"

"Nothing," she said. "I can't have a drink, is that not legal?"

"It's legal," he told her. "But shouldn't you be with your boyfriend right now. I thought you would have to talk him down off a ledge or something."

She rolled her eyes at the thought of Hunter right now. "No, he's rooming with Shawn tonight. Apparently my face disgusts him and he would rather not spend the night with me."

"I'm sorry, I feel like--"

Stephanie held her hand up and shook her head. "Don't apologize for doing nothing. If it bothers Hunter, it bothers Hunter. I didn't apologize for it, if he doesn't want to take what happened for face value, then he doesn't have a lot of trust in me, and I'm not sure if I like that."

Chris had to like her gumption, he just had to admire the way that she took things and handled them like they were nothing. "Okay, I won't apologize then, but…still. What happened, it was just, I think I got carried away."

"No you didn't," she said waving it off so they didn't get into some serious discussion that she didn't want to have. She wasn't prepared to fully think about what Chris had been doing against her skin. As she paid the bartender for her recently procured drink, she took a long sip of it, letting the vodka slip down her throat easily, washing away the bitterness she felt towards Hunter's mistrust of her. "It was practicing."

"Yeah…" He said that like he didn't believe it, and deep down, he wasn't sure that he did. In his entire relationship with Jessica, there had only been one other person he had kissed other than her, and that woman was sitting right in front of him. If Stephanie was the only variety he ever got in his life, would that make him somehow more attached because she was something different than he was used to? It worried him a little that it was. He didn't want to play right into Jessica and Hunter's hand and prove them right.

"So, before, you know, I meant to give you the script for tomorrow," she said, sliding it towards him a little. Chris reached for it and his hand brushed Stephanie's and she pulled back, a little trepid around him. He gave her an awkward smile and grabbed it, flipping through it aimlessly.

"You have an in-ring segment with Austin, you know, for your match coming up at No Way Out, you're going to bring out a fake Austin," she informed him, knowing that he would find that interesting. He nodded and smiled at her. "It should be fun, right?"

"Yeah, it should be. I like being able to do a little bit of humor and a little bit of seriousness."

"You're also going to be in a handicap match with Kurt against Hunter," she told him, not making him flip through the script. "There's going to be a little something with me involved, um, with us actually."

"Oh," he said, looking at her critically as she took another large gulp of her Lemon Drop. "Is this storyline starting to bother you?" He would drop it if he was really the only one who thought it was a good idea.

"No, that's not it at all, I'm just thinking that we never really got to finish what we started earlier, and it's going to bug me that we aren't really at the point where we feel comfortable enough together that we can kiss in public."

"Well," Chris said, looking around. "No time like the present, right?"

"Excuse me?" she asked, eyes wide as she leaned back in her chair, surprised by his proposition. The bar was by no means crowded, but, still, there was a number of people there. What if it somehow got back to Hunter, he would blow a gasket, although at this moment, she actually wouldn't mind seeing him blow a gasket.

While Stephanie was picturing steam coming out of Hunter's ears and mentally giggling at the visual, Chris was leaning in. If Stephanie wanted to make this look spontaneous when they did it on-screen, he could make it spontaneous off the screen. He wasn't drunk by any means, this was his first beer, but he was compelled to finish what they started, to see this through to the finish. He just wished that Stephanie would kind of look his way. He was a couple inches away and he licked his lips, almost looking predatory, but he took a soft breath before leaning in a little bit more to get to her lips.

Stephanie didn't know what broke her out of her reverie, but it was something. The last thing she remembered before she felt Chris's lips descend on hers was the look on his face. His eyes were closed and for some reason, it made him look almost angelic and that thought shocked her in that brief moment, the moment between the ticking of a second when time seemed to freeze in mid-air. And then suddenly, Chris's lips were pressed against hers, which were pursed as her eyes opened wide.

It only took her another second before she was kissing him back, relaxing her lips against his and letting him have access to her mouth if he wanted. It wasn't a passionate, all-consuming kiss, but it wasn't a little peck on the lips either. They both got more comfortable as the seconds ticked by and Chris had the guts to put his hand on the side of her neck, rubbing the spot he had found earlier where she seemed to be sensitive. She moaned softly against his mouth as she felt his hand hitting right where she liked it.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it ended and Chris pulled away and took a deep breath, "Well, I think that we've got the whole kiss thing covered."

"I'd say that we do," she said, a little out of breath. "At least we know that it's not going to be awkward between us out there now. We can look like a couple of people who have actually had an affair, we'll get nominated for an Oscar, I'm sure."

He laughed, loving that she could put him so at ease. This wasn't attraction, it was business, and it was friendship, but attraction it was not. Of course, one could say that they were just fooling themselves as Stephanie's chest heaved with every breath and Chris kept licking his lips as if savoring Stephanie's taste, but then, a kiss was a kiss and passionate or not, it had to have some sort of chemistry, and Chris and Stephanie had never wonted for chemistry.

"Well, I'll be sure to mention you in my acceptance speech then."

"Good, I deserve it," she told him, winking as she downed the last of her drink. "Okay, and with that, I'm going to bed. I'll see you tomorrow though, work and all that fun stuff."

"Yeah, I'll be seeing you," he said, his voice trailing off as he watched her retreating form going towards the elevators. He licked his lips one more time before going back to his beer, pressing it against his forehead again.

The days of the show had a certain giddiness to them that Stephanie couldn't quite explain. It was definitely a different buzz than at a house show and she loved how the entire arena seemed to vibrate with this buzz. She was just happy that she got to be on-screen tonight and play the sweet mother-to-be. The fans had no clue what was in store for them in the coming weeks, but she was sure that they would love what was going to be put out there.

She walked right by Hunter's locker room, not even giving it a second glance. He hadn't spoken to her or tried to contact her since last night when they had parted in the elevator, and right now, she didn't care at all. She was going to ignore him if he was going to ignore her and that was that. She wasn't going to go begging for his forgiveness because Stephanie McMahon did not beg for anyone's forgiveness.

She went into her office and set her things down on the desk that was awaiting her. She sighed and sat down, thinking about what she had to do that evening and mentally preparing herself for it. She had to get into the mood because she knew that she was going to have to deal with Hunter and act quite lovey-dovey with him, and the last thing that she was feeling was loving towards him. He blew things out of proportion; she and Chris had just been practicing for when they had to act in front of the screen, in front of the world. She didn't want to be humiliated, looking completely awkward with Chris, and if practice made perfect, she was going to practice.

She went about her business when she heard the door open and she looked up to see Chris's head peeking in, "Hey, I just wanted to drop by and see how you were doing."

"How I was doing?" Stephanie asked. "Am I sick?"

"No, I meant after everything that happened with Hunter last night. I know that you didn't go into details or anything, but I wanted to make sure that everything was cool between us, between us and him. I don't want him getting the wrong impression with what last night was."

"Truthfully, I haven't spoken to him today," Stephanie said and noted that Chris looked a little distressed by this development. "He'll cool off though and we'll all be fine."

"You know," Chris started, shifting his feet a little as he stood there uncomfortably. "I really didn't want to cause a rift in your relationship with him. If this storyline is going to rip you apart, we can totally put an end to it."

"He'll get over it," Stephanie reassured him. "Besides, we're in too far now, we're about to start everything, and we can't back out now. It won't cause a rift between me and Hunter. He's stubborn, that's it, but I can handle him."

He gave her an easy smile, "Well, if you're sure, I just didn't want to be a bother to you. I don't want you to feel put out by doing this with me."

"I'm not," she told him sincerely as she sent him a smile. "Now go, you've got the main-event on the card tonight, and you've got an in-ring promo in the middle of the show, you're a busy man, you don't need to come see if I'm okay."

"Thanks, Stephanie," Chris told her and sent her one of those dazzling smiles before leaving. She licked her lips a little thinking about the kiss from last night. It had been unexpected, and if she had more of those on the way, she couldn't help but think that she and Chris were going to knock this out of the park and create a storyline to remember, maybe like Macho Man and Miss Elizabeth or something, a story that spanned time. She liked the thought of that.

But first she would have to think about her scenes with Hunter. They were supposed to be meeting with the fake doctor and get an "ultrasound" photo of their "baby." She wasn't looking forward to being in the vicinity of Hunter, but she was a professional and she would trudge through it like a professional, even if she was fighting with her boyfriend. She got up from her seat and mentally prepared herself for the night to come.

Later that evening, she was walking out of the room where she had just filmed her segment with Hunter and the fake doctor. She was still mad at him but managed to curb her anger for a few minutes so she could come off like the glowing pregnant woman. But now that it was over, she was back to the brooding, angry woman, and that suited her just fine. She walked back towards her office to collect herself for her next segment when she heard footsteps behind her and saw a single red rose in front of her face. She turned on her heel and glared at Hunter.

"What's this?" she asked.

"It's for you," Hunter said, giving her the flower. She took it gingerly, as if it were going to prick her any second. But it didn't so she turned to the prick in front of her.

"What's it for?"

"It's for you," he repeated. "I'm sorry about last night. You just have to understand where I'm coming from. I walk in and see my girlfriend getting kissed by another guy. It's not something you want to see."

"We were practicing for our storyline," she said testily, still not really seeing his side of things. "You know I want this to look good."

"I know that, but Stephanie, I just…I can't stand him," Hunter said, frustrated by the image that kept playing over and over again in his mind. "Seeing him with his hands all over you, it was disgusting. He thinks that he can just touch you wherever he wants, suck on your neck like you're his, it disgusts me!"

"Okay, I get it!" she said to him. "Hunter, don't you trust me? Don't you trust in me and what we have? I trust you…"

"I trust you," he said, placing his hands on her shoulders and then leaning down so he could look her in the eyes, "I trust _you_, Stephanie. I'm just not sure I trust him. Who's to say that he won't try and take you and use you?"

She rolled her eyes at that, "He's married, Hunter, the man is married. He knows this is only business. Do we want it to look good, of course, we want to entertain the fans, but when all is said and done, I go home with you and he goes home to his wife and that's what we both want. You just have to trust the both of us."

"I can't trust him," Hunter said, but then smiled at her. "But I can trust you."

"Okay, I guess that'll do," she told him, a hint of a smile creeping onto her face. She stepped forward and hugged him tightly, still clinging to the rose that he had given her. In hugging him though, she missed the angry look on his face when he thought of him trusting Chris. That would never happen, not in a million years.

Stephanie was much happier later when she was waiting for her cue to go out there after Hunter's match against Kurt and Chris. Now that she and Hunter had patched things up, everything was going swimmingly. She knew that Hunter wasn't going to be completely nice to Chris or anything, but she had hope that civility would break out between the pair, at least for the duration of this storyline.

She saw her cue to go out there and put on her worried look as she walked quickly down the aisle, making sure to look at Chris and Kurt with trepidation. She made brief eye contact with Chris as she climbed into the ring and he fought the smirk off of his face as he looked at her. He couldn't help it, he had fun with Stephanie and she made him laugh sometimes with her boldness towards Hunter. She bent over her boyfriend and checked up on him, knowing that he was essentially okay. While she ran her hand down his cheek, she caught the ghost of a smile on his lips and wondered what he was thinking about right then.

But before she could truly contemplate what was going on, she could hear the cheers of the crowd, and she knew what was coming next. She could see Chris's feet getting closer and closer, walking cockily over to her. She leaned back and looked up at him from her knees, and momentarily thought of how funny this must look, and how much people were thinking that she was exactly like she was now, constantly on her knees in front of men. The fact that it was Chris of all people made it funnier, for reasons that people would less than a week from now.

She pretended to be frightened of him, but she couldn't really muster it up to look terrified. She looked nervous at best as she stood up slowly in front of him. She put her hand over her abdomen and shook her head as Chris looked at her like she was his prey. He kept stalking closer to her as she kept telling him not to hurt her baby. He smirked at her, a nice smirk and she knew that if people could read between the lines, they would see that Chris had no intention of hurting her, but was in fact, storyline-wise, this fake baby's father, since she was having a fake affair with him. She felt her back against the ring-post and looked up at him as he was muttering nonsensical words at her.

It was funny in that one moment she found herself staring into his eyes. They were so blue right now, and she was reminded in a way of how he had looked last night, in that brief second when she had realized he was going to kiss her. Funny how that was the thought running through her mind when she hadn't even seen his eyes before she felt his lips. But that was what was coming to her now, and she was starting to find that shade of blue so mesmerizing and entrancing.

At least it was until Chris turned and got whacked in the head with the chair, which was not in script at all. Chris hardly had time to prepare for it as the chair landed smack on his head. Stephanie's eyes widened and her first instinct was to check on him, but Hunter was coming over to her. She wanted to question him, but she knew that she had to do a spot where Kurt knocked Hunter into her, so she waited for it to happen, but as she waited, her anger started to build. So much so that when she got backstage, the first thing she did was turn to Hunter and start to yell.

"What the hell was that! That wasn't in the script!" Stephanie screamed at him.

"What?" he asked innocently.

"You were supposed to grab Chris and punch him a couple times and throw him out of the ring," she told him, like he was suddenly stupid or something. "You were _not_ supposed to hit him with a chair!"

"Well, I got caught up in the moment," he shrugged. "Jericho'll live."

"That's not the point, you…" she stopped herself short as she glared at him. "You did that on purpose didn't you? You didn't get caught in the moment. You did that on purpose because you're still mad about yesterday."

"Oh get over yourself, Stephanie, that's not why I did it."

"Oh yeah, I'm so positively sure about that," Stephanie said. "Look, the reason we write a script is so that it's followed. You are not above the script, you are not above anyone here, Hunter, get that through your head. I make the rules."

"I didn't do it on purpose," he said slowly. "I thought it would go over better."

She took a deep breath to calm herself down and looked at him, weighing her words carefully. "Well, next time you think it'll go over better, it won't, trust me. So stick to the script next time."

She turned to go and he called out after her, "Where are you going?"

"Where do you think I'm going?" she asked sarcastically. "I'm going to go see if Chris is alright."

"What the hell?" Hunter said, catching up to her and grabbing her arm and making her face him. "Why the sudden concern about Chris, huh Stephanie? Is there something that you want to tell me?"

"Other than let go of my arm, nope, not a thing to tell you," Stephanie told him, pulling her arm out of his grasp roughly. "Chris is one of my employees and not to mention one of my friends, so I'm going to go see how he is, whether you like it or not."

"Who cares about him?" Hunter told her. "Look, he's fine, we both know it, the man is tough, he can stand to be by himself right now. Let's just go, we'll calm down, have some dinner and then we can go back to our hotel room and go to bed."

"If you think I'm…no…no, I'm not going to get into it with you again," she said, shaking her head as she ran a hand through her straight hair, glad they hadn't put it in some awful style tonight. "Look, I'm not going to argue over this with you again. You are being completely unreasonable about this entire thing, and it's starting to make me curious as to why you're so against Chris."

"What? This isn't about me."

"Oh don't bullshit me, of course it's about you," Stephanie said, glaring at him. "You have some vendetta against Chris and you hate the fact you have to deal with him, that _I_ have to deal with him. So spit it out Hunter, I've been wanting the answer to the million dollar question for a while now, what is it that makes you so hateful towards Chris?"

"Look, if you want to go see him, go see him for all I care," Hunter said before stalking off. Stephanie watched him go, wondering why he was so angry towards Chris. From all accounts, Chris had done nothing to him and he just couldn't figure that man out. If she didn't love him, she would've thrown herself through a glass window already. She sighed to herself, smoothing out her hair unconsciously as she made her way towards Chris's locker room.

When she arrived, she knocked tentatively on the door and then opened it a crack to say, "Chris, are you decent? Can I come in?" She didn't hear anything, and knocked again. "Chris, can you hear me? Are you okay? I'm going to come inside, okay?"

"You can go inside, but I won't be in there," a voice said from behind her.

She jumped and squeaked a little as Chris startled her. She turned around a placed her hand on her stomach. "Oh God, I thought you were in your locker room, you scared me."

"Sorry about that," he apologized, rubbing his forehead a little.

"Oh God, are you okay?" Stephanie said, stepping up to him and taking his hand away from his forehead, studying it as if there was writing on it. "Did Hunter hit you really hard? I don't know what came over him, it wasn't planned and he's been so--"

"I'm fine, Steph," he told her, taking her hand away from his forehead, although he had been enjoying the coolness of her hand against his warm forehead. It had soothed his throbbing muscles that were starting to give him a headache. "Nothing a little aspirin and some sleep won't cure."

"I'm really sorry about that," Stephanie said, sounding sad. "I didn't know he was going to do that, I would've given you warning, but I just didn't see it in time, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Chris told her, "You can go, I'll be fine. I promise."

"I don't…"

"You don't what?" he wondered.

"I just want to make sure that you're really okay. I feel like some of this is my fault. Hunter has this thing against you, I don't know why, it's been brewing, he's been a jerk and…"

"Are you really sure that you want to go through with this, Steph? I really only seem to be causing a problem between you and your boyfriend and I never wanted that for you. Here you are apologizing for something that _he_ did. That's not right."

"No, it's not right, but Hunter is stubborn, you know what that's like," Stephanie said softly and Chris had to chuckle at that. She smiled and continued. "See, you know what its like. I mean, picture Jessica in something like this, not too pretty a picture huh?"

"You've got a point," Chris said. "So we just trudge on?"

"Yeah, we just trudge on," she nodded. "And you're sure that you're okay?" She stepped up to him again and ran her hand down his cheek, as if checking something. She gently cupped his chin and studied the top of his head, looking for any bumps or bruising. While she was doing that, Chris was looking at her face, the way her lips were pursed to one side as she scrutinized his face and how alert her eyes were, blue and gray with each move, the light deciding which color they would be. He shook his thoughts away, wondering if that hit had caused him to be in a daze or what. He had to be to get lost in her face like that.

"I'm fine, Steph," he whispered.

"You looked a little out of it just now, are you sure a hospital--"

He took her hand from his chin and held it loosely in his own, letting it drop from his face. "Yeah, I'm fine. I'm going to be fine. As long as Hunter won't always be gunning for me, I think I'll survive this storyline with you."

"Oh," she said, flexing her superiority playfully, "You think you can survive me?" Chris gave her a once-over, going from her smirk to her feet and back up, pleasantly surprised to find the smirk replaced by a wide grin that reached her entire face.

"Ms. McMahon, if I'm going to survive anything, it's definitely going to be you."


	8. Chapter 8

It was going smoothly, just like he knew it would. He smiled as he watched Stephanie walk down the hall towards the gorilla position, dressed in a stunning white wedding dress. This was it, this was going to be the start of something great. He could feel it and deep down, he was proud that this was all his idea. Regardless of what happened, or how this storyline turned out, the credit was coming to him. It sure as hell wasn't going to be blame, he knew that much.

This storyline was just too damn good to fail them now.

Chris watched as a worker handed Stephanie a bouquet of flowers, and he had to hand it to her. She was behind his idea, and they were going all out with the vow renewal that night. They were practically having a wedding live on the show, which would lull the fans completely into their storyline. No one was going to see this coming, not the fans, not the internet reporters, no one. They had taken great pains to make sure that everyone kept it to themselves, which would only make it even better. He rubbed his hands in anticipation, before glancing at a nearby digital clock.

"You're either really nervous or really excited, and I'm hoping it's the first."

He glanced over at Stephanie and his smile grew, "Well that's not something I want to hear right before the biggest storyline of my life."

"This is the biggest storyline of your life?"

"It's leading up to me main eventing Wrestlemania, so yeah, I'd say it ranks up there on the list."

"So you are nervous," she said with a grin.

"You want me to be?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in intrigue. "You want your favorite, most talented wrestler, and most handsome wrestler on the roster to be nervous? You want your first-ever Undisputed Champion to be quivering in his boots at the thought of a storyline?"

"Someone's head is getting a little inflated by all that gold," she laughed. "I was kinda hoping you'd get nervous, but it's just wishful thinking on my part, right? In any case, I might have to scratch your storyline entirely if you keep this up."

"Hey, I'm just warming up getting into character," he said with a wink, before picking up his two heavyweight belts up from a nearby table. He casually draped one over each shoulder, before looking up at Stephanie and giving her a genuine smile. "How do I look?"

"You look fine," she said, looking his white and black checkered outfit over carefully. "You changed pretty fast, I might add."

"I shower fast," he said with a shrug, before Stephanie stepped closer to him. She put her flowers on the table where his belts had just been and reached up to him. He gave her a curious look, but didn't flinch or move as she reached for the collar on his shirt. "What are you doing?" he asked as he tried looking down at her hands.

"Fixing your collar, the commercials just started so we're on in five," she told him in her business tone as she pulled his collar out from underneath his belts. Her hands slowly drifted down his shirt, which he had buttoned up halfway to the top. "Are you excited? This was your idea after all."

"Yeah," he answered, as she started unbuttoning his shirt. He looked down at her hands as she moved down, forcing his eyes to stay on her hands and not on the revealing cleavage of her dress. "Steph, you don't have to --"

"It looks better when you wear it open," she told him, before looking over her shoulder at the time. "God, where the hell is Hunter?" she mumbled under her breath as Chris released a deep breath, thankful for the distraction. He reached over to the table and picked up her bouquet, and gave her a sheepish smile as she turned to face him again.

"You probably need these, since you're practically getting married all over again," he teased, and she rolled her eyes playfully as she took them from him.

"God, I'm excited, I haven't been this excited since the last time we worked together," she said with a wide smile. "Aren't you excited?"

"Stephanie, there you are, I've been looking all over for you."

Chris groaned internally as Hunter strolled up to them. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a piece of gum, looking off to the side so as to not acknowledge the new member of the group. Hunter noticed this and sent him a dirty look, which Chris could practically feel. He ignored it as he popped the gum into his mouth, not wanting to deal with him tonight.

"Hunter, where have you been, we're on in like three minutes," Stephanie said angrily.

"I was busy getting ready, relax," Hunter replied in a cool tone. "Are you ready, do you want us to go over anything again?"

"I'm fine, I'm a professional, I got it," she responded, and Chris could hear the slight annoyance in her voice.

"What about you?" Hunter demanded, turning towards Chris as his tone gained an edge. "You ready?"

Chris chomped a little harder on his gum as he turned to face Hunter, before giving him a forced smile. "Ready as I'll ever be, Trips."

"Don't forget what we talked about," Hunter said, staring a hole through the Canadian.

"Alright, he's got it, I've got it, we've all got it, stop wasting our time Hunter," Stephanie said sternly. "We've got a show to run, in case you've forgotten."

"What's your problem?" Hunter asked, turning to face his girlfriend.

"I am not about to do this with you," Stephanie told him in a lowered voice, which made Chris shift his weight uncomfortably. He rubbed the back of his neck and hesitantly cleared his throat as Hunter rolled his eyes.

"Fine, whatever, I'll see both of you out there," he said gruffly, before stalking off to the stage entrance. Chris watched him leave, his eyes narrowing in disgust. One day, they were going to come to blows and just put all their hatred out there on the table. One day, he'd find out just what the older man held so strongly against him. One day…

Stephanie's hand on his chest brought him out of it. He looked at her in surprise, but she just gave him a smile. "We'll be okay, don't worry about him. This storyline is going to work, I'm going to make damn sure of it."

He had to smile at that take-charge tone in her voice, and he nodded. "This is going to be hot, I can already feel it."

"Me too," she said with a smirk as she pulled away from him. "Oh, and don't look so surprised next time I touch you. You better start getting used to it," she added teasingly as she walked away.

He stood there for a few moments, watching as she headed towards Hunter and Vince. He watched as the three started talking as he hung back, knowing it would be just a while longer before he went out there. And then it would begin – the storyline that his wife opposed so strongly would be underway. His chewing once again turned to almost chomping at the thought of Jessica watching this at home tonight, but this was something he had to do. This storyline would propel him to a permanent spot in the memory of the fans, and would make his Wrestlemania match so much more meaningful. He knew that Jessica was opposed to it, but it wasn't about her tonight.

She was just going to have to deal.

* * *

The fans were already rowdy by the time Stephanie came up to speak into the microphone. There was anticipation in the air, because everyone and their mother now knew that her pregnancy was fake. It had aired on the titantron for the world to see, and now everyone was expecting a reaction from Hunter. Stephanie beamed as she stepped up to the microphone, not so much because she was acting to be thrilled to be renewing her vows, but because she knew that these fans were about to get their money's worth. 

"Hunter," she started, gazing at her real-life boyfriend adoringly and ignoring the obligatory 'what' chants that were going to give her hell during her speech. "I take thee as my husband, again. And I wanted to do it in front of the entire world…"

"Hang on a second there, Stephanie," Hunter interrupted as he smiled at her kindly. "I'd like to go first, if you don't mind?" She looked surprised, and glanced over at her father, who gave her a reassuring nod as the fans buzzed. Hunter pulled the microphone closer to him and motioned for the fans to quiet down a little bit.

"You know Stephanie, I wanted to come out here in front of the entire world and come clean with you. I wanted to tell you in front of everyone how I feel about you. Tell you how I felt about you since the moment I saw you, and also tell you how I feel about you right now. You see, last week, when you told me I was going to be a father… I was overwhelmed with emotion. Absolutely overwhelmed, because despite our ups and downs over the last two years, last week was the greatest moment of my life. Since last week, since that day Steph, I've seen you in a different light," he said, pausing as the fans began to cheer. He let it go for a few moments, wanting it all to last. This had been the original plan since the beginning, and he still didn't see why Stephanie didn't see that there was potential in this version of the storyline too.

"It's true that when your wife is pregnant, you love her more. When I look at you Stephanie, I see you not as my loving wife, and not as the mother of my child," he paused momentarily, basking in the anticipation of the moment as Stephanie silently urged him on. "But as I stand here and look into your eyes tonight, I see you for what you truly are… a NO GOOD, LYING BITCH!"

Stephanie gasped as the fans erupted into cheers. She dropped her bouquet in shock, as she covered her stomach with her hands. Shaking her head in disbelief, she looked speechless as Hunter's smile disappeared and he began to let out his real frustrations in the form of a rant.

"You wanted this _so _bad Stephanie, that you would lie about a pregnancy, huh? You wanted it so bad that you used my emotions against me?! I have done some pretty bad things in my life Steph, but this… I'm an asshole okay, I admit it, but even I would not drop this low. You don't care about anyone but yourself! Well, you know what? It's OVER, Steph – we're THROUGH!"

Stephanie turned away from him, covering her eyes as Vince stepped up to Hunter and shoved him angrily. She looked over her shoulder and saw Hunter take a swing at her father and knock him down, much to the delight of the fans. She feigned shock, and escaped to the other side of the ring and around the wedding set-up that was in the middle of the ring, and motioned for a microphone as Hunter beat up her father and threw him over the top rope. As soon as he did that, he began to relentlessly destroy the set-up as Stephanie gasped.

"Stop it! STOP IT! STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" she screamed into the microphone, but he ignored her as he continued making a mess out of everything. She angrily stalked up to him and slapped the taste right out of his mouth, forcing his head to whip to the side and forcing him to stop. Silence fell over the arena as he glared at the ring mat, his fists clenched, and everyone wondering what he was going to do as Stephanie raised the microphone to her lips.

"This was supposed to be OUR night, Hunter! Yes, I lied, and yes, it was a bitchy thing to do! I get that, I understand that, but I did it for you! I _needed _us to renew our vows, don't you understand that?!" she yelled into her microphone. She lowered it as she waited for him to look back up at her, to say something to her as the fans chanted 'slut' at her. She bit her lip hard as she watched him, not wanting to laugh at the fact that she was only moments away from earning that chant.

Finally, he looked up, but before she could react, he shoved her face and knocked her down to the mat as the fans went wild. Stephanie sat up angrily, fuming with anger and completely in character now as she watched him turn and climb out of the ring. Grabbing the microphone, she forced herself up quickly and raised it once again.

"You want to get mad over a fake baby, Hunter? Is that what you're so pissed off about?!" she yelled, watching his back as he slowly walked back up the ramp. "You should be thankful that there is no baby, because if there was, it wouldn't have been yours!"

Hunter stopped walking at that.

"That's right, I said it, I said it in front of the whole damn world!" she said with a smirk. "Do you really think that all of this was for kicks, Hunter? No, it wasn't, I wanted to renew our vows so I could renew one of the most important – _fidelity_. Because let's face it sweetie, while you spent hours rehabbing, hours and hours… I was being taken care of, hours and hours of me being with someone who was ten times the man you were…" her voice trailed dreamily as she sensually wiped her lips with a few of her fingers, a look of pure lust in her eyes as the chants of 'slut' rang clearer and clearer, louder and louder. Hunter slowly turned to face her again, and the chants went up as he walked back towards the ring.

"Is that what it takes to get you to come back to me, baby?" she said with a smirk as she watched him. "I didn't want to do it, you know. That's why I wanted to renew our vows Hunter, I wanted it to work with us," she added as he climbed back into the ring and slowly straightened. "But you know what? Now that I think about it? I don't think I would've stopped seeing him, because God, he is amazing… when he touches me… his hands are enough to make any girl scream," she said with a smirk as he gave her a look of disgust. "So in a way, I guess I should thank you huh? Now I don't have to sneak around to see him, and anytime I'm in the mood, he'll be there to satisfy my needs. Unlike you, he's a real man," she said smugly, looking at him defiantly. She opened her mouth to say more, to drive that knife deeper when he snatched the microphone right out of her hands.

"I'm only going to ask you once," he said in a low tone that was laced with fury as they stared each other down. "Who the hell is it?"

The self-satisfied smirk on her face grew as she took her veil off and tossed it to the side, letting her hair completely down while he glared at her. She knew he wanted an answer, but she wasn't about to give it up, oh no. Slowly, she removed her ring and tossed it out of the ring, before crossing her arms arrogantly and going back to staring at him. She raised her chin defiantly as he exhaled into the microphone.

"This is just another lie, isn't it?" he growled, to which she just raised an eyebrow and tilted her head in amusement. "You really are a lying bitch, you know that?" he added, stepping up to her. "There is no other guy, stop trying to an even bigger bitch than you really are, we're over, Stephanie! If you think that you're going to hurt me by making up even more lies about affairs and babies and all that other bullshit, you're wrong! You really expect me to believe that you could have an affair and have me not realize it? Do you know who I am?" he yelled at her, right in her face, but she wasn't backing down as they once again stared each other down.

And then, she slowly raised a hand and pointed over his shoulder innocently. He gave her a dirty look as he turned around, expecting her father to be standing there waiting for round two.

What he didn't expect was to be met with a steel chair shot, courtesy of the Undisputed Champion, Chris Jericho.

Chris looked down at Hunter, before slowly picking up his championship belts that he had dropped in favor of the steel chair. He draped them over his shoulder arrogantly, ignoring the deafening boos that were raining down from the fans. He sneered at them, thankful that Hunter was so damn long-winded. It had given him plenty of time to sneak out and get ready for his moment of glory, and here it was.

He looked up slowly from Hunter's prone body to see Stephanie looking at him with a smirk on her face. He matched her smirk with his trademark one, slowly stepping around Hunter as she did the same. He stopped walking and let her approach him, wanting to see what she was going to do. Unconsciously, he licked his lips in anticipation, watching as she stepped up to him while he let his eyes roam over her appreciatively.

He slowly removed his belts from his shoulders as she stepped up to him, running one hand up his chest and opening up his shirt more as his smirk grew. She took one of his title belts into her hand, and he reached up to her hair with his free hand. A moment later, he grabbed a fistful of it and tilted her head back as he let his eyes take her in to the loud boos of the fans. He licked his lips again before he brought his lips down on hers, kissing her hungrily. She kissed him back just as eagerly which made him moan against her mouth as he let go of her hair and used his free arm to pull her tightly against him. She in turn wrapped her free arm around his neck as he straightened, never breaking her kiss with him. Finally, she pulled away first, but he instinctively sought out her lips again.

Finally, she pulled away again and he sighed in content as he held her close to him by the waist, a lazy smile on his face as he looked down at Hunter. He then shot the camera a cocky smirk before raising one of his belts as Stephanie raised the other. He turned to her to congratulate her on a job well done when she surprised him by kissing him again. This time though, he instinctively closed his eyes and responded to her, not wanting to be caught off guard on camera.

Oh yeah, he could definitely get used to this.


	9. Chapter 9

All good things must come to an end.

Those words seemed prophetic as Chris walked up the pathway to his home. After spending last night celebrating with Stephanie over their seemingly successful debut (Hunter had claimed to have a headache, but Stephanie had so much adrenaline coursing through her veins she needed to let it out), he was heading home for some much-needed downtime. But that didn't stop the grin from coming to his face when he thought about how they got such a great reaction to their revelation the night before. The crowd reacted just how he had predicted they would, and he was fortunate for that. If the crowd hadn't been electric, Chris knew that Hunter would absolutely pounce on that fact and try to get the storyline changed.

He walked into the house and threw his duffel bag off to the side, intending to get it later so he could wash his dirty laundry. He wandered into the living room and saw Jessica sitting on the couch, one leg folded under. Her expression was tight, her lips in a thin line as she watched something on television, her hand poised in mid-air with remote in hand. He walked in further and turned towards the television to see her watching last night's show.

"It came out great, didn't it?" he asked.

"Oh, is that what you'd call great?" she shot back at him. He was so proud of his work he failed to pick up on the tone to her voice.

"Well, yeah, did you hear the crowd react to it?" he wondered, plopping himself down on the couch next to her. She looked over at him and was dismayed by the obvious giddy look in his eyes as they scanned the screen anxiously. "Come on, play it."

"I heard the crowd react," she responded. "They seemed…indifferent…"

"Indifferent!" he exclaimed incredulously, "No way were they indifferent, they were eating out of the palm of our hands, it was great. Even Hunter, that jackass, thought that it went well…his part at least, he didn't have much to say about my part, but that's just typical Hunter."

"Yeah, typical Hunter," she echoed. This time, Chris could pick up on the slightly bitter tone to her voice and he sighed inwardly knowing that this was going to lead to a fight. Rather than stay and see it hash out, he got up and walked towards the entryway. "Where are you going?"

"I'm going to grab my bag and wash my stuff, it's gross," he threw out over his shoulder.

"I thought you wanted to watch."

"I did, and I will, later," he told her. "It's still going to be on there when I do my laundry, I can wait to see it." In actuality, he just didn't want Jessica to be a buzzkill. This storyline was starting off with a bang, and he was extremely proud of the work that he and Stephanie were putting into it. It would be the crescendo to their entire history on-screen, and he wasn't going to screw that up, and he wasn't going to screw up his chance to make this one of the most memorable WrestleMania main events ever.

"I don't know," Jessica said nonchalantly as she twirled the remote in her hand. "I might have to record something tonight and I might need the tape, so I wouldn't be too sure that it'll be here later."

He turned around slowly and spoke as nicely as he could muster, "Don't record over it, please, you know how I like to study myself to see what I did well and what I did wrong."

"Well I don't have any blank tapes," she told him.

"What is your problem?" he asked, though he knew what it was. He just wasn't going to beat around the bush anymore. If she wanted to have a fight right now, she was going to do it whether or not he was an active participant.

Jessica didn't beat around the bush when she spoke next, "Why did you kiss her twice!"

"What!" he inquired, his jaw slacking just the tiniest bit.

"I saw it with my own eyes, you kissed, fine, you have to go through with this stupid storyline because you won't talk to management about it, but then she kissed you again and you got all into it!" she said, glaring at him.

He scoffed and stared at her, mouth agape. "What the hell are you suggesting here, Jessica? Because if you're suggesting what I think you're suggesting, then you need to get your facts straight."

"Why are you getting all defensive?"

"You know what? It's called acting, I don't know if you've ever heard of it. We were going out there to do our job, nothing more, nothing less. Do you see me with her right now? Do you see me hanging around her? No, because I'm here with you, I guess that doesn't count for much these days, huh?"

Chris stalked out of the room, but felt Jessica's presence behind him. He was just bending over to pick up his duffel bag when she grabbed his arm. He started to shake it off, but she wouldn't let him and he stood up slowly to face her. She looked apologetic and she smiled sadly at him. "I'm sorry, Chris, I just…you know how I get when another girl looks at you, and she's…she's kissing you and it bothers me."

"I don't know why," he told her. "I've been a faithful husband, I've--"

"I know," she said, facing the floor. She dropped his arm and sighed deeply, running her hands through her blonde hair. "I know that you've been faithful, and I trust you. I'm just nervous about this storyline and how close you're going to get to her, and to imply that you two are having sex, it's very…it's hard to watch."

Chris tried to see it from her point of view, but with the success of the storyline, he was finding it difficult. He took her face in his hands and ran his thumb over her bottom lip. "You have nothing to worry about, trust me, please?"

"I do, I trust you, but she kissed you, and you looked surprised, and then you kissed her back like it was the most natural thing in the world," she told him.

Chris had enough by now and he pulled away from her. "You know, I feel like I'm talking to a wall here. I talk and I talk, and I hear myself saying these words, and you just can't believe me for one second. You say you trust me, and then--"

"I don't trust her!" Jessica shouted.

Now Chris was even more confused. He shook his head at his wife, looking at her with something closely resembling pity. He picked up his bag and walked off towards the laundry room. He didn't know why he felt a sudden flare up of anger when she questioned Stephanie's morals, but he did and it burned in his gut like acid. Stephanie was his partner in all of this, seemingly the only person who really got _it_, the it being that this storyline worked, that they had been building up to this for a long time, that this would be the pinnacle of years of work.

"Chris!" she called after him as he went into the laundry room. "Stop and talk to me…"

"No," he snapped, pulling clothes out of the bag and throwing them into separate piles. "We've already had this discussion once and that was one time too many. You don't see how this is going to further my career, don't you want what's best for me?"

"So now you're turning it onto me?" she accused and he wanted to grab her and shake her at that moment. She was just arguing for arguing's sake.

"I'm not turning it against you, but you know that my dream has always been to be in the WrestleMania main event, ever since they started WrestleMania. Do you know how many guys have that same dream? Do you know how few will actually get to experience it? With Dwayne and Hulk fighting at the same show, we're going to have to do something to make the main event great. I don't want to get lost in the shuffle, I've worked too long and too hard for this, you don't get it, Jessica, I've wanted this for practically my entire life, I'm not giving it up!"

"I don't trust her though," Jessica argued. "She kissed you when you weren't expecting it! She obviously wanted to kiss you!"

"No, I wasn't expecting it, but we don't sit backstage and plan out how many kisses we'll have, or how many hugs we'll allow ourselves, it doesn't work that way, if the mood strikes, we go with it."

"But she was all over you, and you were all over her, and I'm sitting here…you say that I don't get your dream, well my dream is to have a husband who is faithful to me, my dream is to have a normal life, my dream is to have kids, that's what I want and I've had to put that aside for _your_ dreams."

"You knew when you married me that this was my life, you knew that and you accepted that and now, right now, just because I'm in a storyline where I have to be with another woman, you suddenly spring it on me."

"I'm not springing anything on you, I thought that was what you wanted to," she told him. "I thought you wanted a family, a normal life…"

"Not right now," he told her, throwing in a load of laundry and pouring in the soap. "Look, Jessica, Stephanie's intentions are perfectly professional. She's a professional in every sense of the word. She likes where this is headed, and you know, I do too, so we're going to stick with it."

"So I get no say in your life?"

"No, I'm afraid you don't," Chris told her. "I'm going to be up in my office, I don't think you need to follow me."

"This discussion isn't over," she said, doing just what she said he shouldn't do and she followed him.

"Yes, it is," he snapped at her. "Look, right now, I think that you're being unreasonable. You say all this shit to me, about perfect lives and whatever. I'm not buying into that. You have a problem with this storyline, then don't watch me in it. I'm acting, and when you realize that, maybe you'll come home from this pity party you've got going."

Chris stormed off, knowing that he handled the situation badly, but not caring at that moment. His anger at Jessica was giving him a headache. She had to take his buzz from last night and completely smash it into the ground. He went into the living room, grabbing the tape from the VCR before heading upstairs to his home office. He locked the door behind him and sat down in his chair. He hated fighting with his wife, but neither one of them seemed willing to budge on this issue. He cared about Jessica's feelings, but she didn't seem to be caring about his own feelings, and that hurt. She was hardly being supportive of him, and he had supported her on so many ventures.

He popped the tape into his VCR and played it, watching the scene unfold for the first time before his own eyes. This was the first time that he had watched it since it happened last night, and he was even more pleased with how it came across on television. When he saw Stephanie kiss him that second time, he felt a rush of something coursing through him. It was the same feeling he had last night when she had kissed him. It was kind of like a feeling of laziness, but that wasn't the right word and he knew it. It felt…like they could be something good, and not from a personal standpoint of course, although kissing Stephanie was never bad, but from a professional standpoint. This was the start of something good, he could feel it and sense it.

And if Jessica didn't see that, it was her loss.

His cell phone rang in his pocket and he fished it out, looking at the display, which read, "Private Number," he frowned a little bit and answered it, "Hello?"

"Hey Chris, it's Steph." Chris didn't know it right then, but a smile was on his face, a much needed smile.

"Steph, what's up?"

"Oh, nothing, I just wanted to let you know that I'm going to e-mail you the script for Thursday, so you can look over it and tell me what you think, I think I've got some great ideas jotted down, but I would love your input in it."

"Really?"

"Of course," she told him. "This was your idea after all, and you've been with me in storylines, I think that it would be great if we could work this out together, you know, like real partners."

"I would like that," he responded. "I was thinking myself about some things that I'd like to do with you."

"Oh, sounds naughty," she teased. "It's good to talk to someone who is actually supportive of this idea, listening to Hunter, you'd think I'd suggested we pull a Romeo and Juliet and just kill ourselves in the middle of the ring." Chris thought to his own situation and was kind of glad Stephanie was going through it too. Granted, Stephanie was probably hammering it into Hunter's head that he wasn't getting his way this time while he stormed off and away from Jessica. "You're lucky that you have someone who isn't opposed to it."

Chris cleared his throat uneasily, "Uh…yeah, very lucky, me, that's it."

She laughed, "Well, what the e-mail says basically is just a few ideas to elaborate on. I was thinking that we could give a promo about how we really began, I can go on and on about how sexy you were, how I couldn't resist you, maybe even mention it happened in your locker room, something that would get Hunter really riled up. Does that sound okay to you?"

He gulped, the images of him having sex with Stephanie flashing through his mind as he tried to think of what the best scenario was for them deciding to sleep together. "I think that sounds great, we could say we couldn't even wait to get to a hotel room."

"Yes, great!" she said. "I like that, we just let it break. Or we could've been arguing and we just started making out, how does that sound?" She sounded so needy for his approval, and he wondered if maybe she was picturing this and getting a little nervous too.

"That sounds even better. It would make sense, you were lonely from Hunter being gone, I insult you, and next thing you know we're…kissing…"

"Up against a wall," she added.

"I grab your leg a little bit, kind of haul you against me…"

"Yeah, and then I run my hands up your chest, and then I pull away, confusion in my eyes because I don't know where this is leading and I'm supposed to hate you."

"But I just kiss you again and you just fall into my arms, and we can't explain it, and we can't stop it…"

"And then?" she asked, her voice a little breathless.

"Then the affair starts…" he paused and then spoke quietly, "How does that sound?"

"That sounds perfect."


	10. Chapter 10

Chris was sitting alone in his locker room, reading over the script for the night and was slightly startled when the door shot open. He looked up to see Stephanie walking in quickly, one hand holding a rolled up piece of paper as he gave her a confused look.

"Chris, I've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Our segment from Monday pulled the best ratings of the year so far!" she beamed, her smile bright as he put down his script and took the paper she was handing over to him. "Can you believe it, everyone's been raving about how well it looked on TV, and here's the proof! The fans love it, Chris, this idea of yours is turning out to be pure gold," she said excitedly.

"Wow," Chris said as he looked at the numbers before him. They had done even better than he had hoped, and it was a great feeling to know it all came back to him. He smirked a little, "Well, I told you the fans would like it."

"Like it? They _love _it so far, and we can't let them down now, not while we have a full head of steam," she said, starting to pace now in front of him while rubbing her hands together as he chuckled.

"Stephanie, we've barely just started the storyline, let's not get ahead of ourselves… we still have more than a month to go to build towards WrestleMania," Chris reasoned, even though he would be lying if he said he wasn't proud that this was all his idea.

"I know, but we're on a roll now, we've gotten off to a great start," she said, almost bristling with excitement as she took back the paper from Chris. "Did you get a chance to look over the script for tonight?"

"Yeah, I was just doing that when you walked in… you do know that I could've been naked, right?" Chris teased as her eyes widened. His smirk grew when he saw her cheeks redden a little, which made him chuckle. "I'm kidding."

"No, I should've knocked, you're right, you could've been… yeah, that was inappropriate of me, I'm sorry," she apologized, clearly embarrassed as he reached for his script that night. He rolled it up and playfully hit her with it on the arm, giving her an easy smile.

"I was just kidding, Steph," he said charmingly, reaching out to her and pretending to punch her in the chin. She rolled her eyes playfully and shoved his hand away as he grinned. "It was a hot start, huh?"

"Yes, a very hot start, and now we have to keep it going and make sure we build on it."

"Yeah, you know, I was just looking over the script and I kind of had an idea for how to make it better," he said as he picked up the script from where he'd put it down. He turned back to Stephanie as she went and stood right next to him, looking over his shoulder as he flipped the pages.

"You know that the promo lines aren't set, you have a lot of leeway with us and you can improvise as much as you feel is necessary, so long as you get the general idea across," she told him as his eyes scanned the page.

"Oh I know, it's not the lines that I have a problem with, I think they're really hot," Chris said with a smirk.

"Well, it's almost straight from our conversation on the phone a few nights ago," Stephanie said as he looked at her out of the corner of his eye.

"No wonder then," he said as she looked up at him and caught his growing smirk. "You have an excellent memory."

"Mhmm," she said, a self-satisfied look on her face as she raised her eyebrows. "You were going to suggest changing something on the script?"

"Oh yeah, right," he said, turning back to it and pointing to one part while she looked over his shoulder. "See, right here, what we need is for Paul to come out right here, before the kissing."

"But I thought it'd be better if we just had our promo together without any interruptions," Stephanie said, looking up at him.

"Well, I think that would work fine, but the way I'm thinking, it just makes sense for Triple H to want revenge after the way we left him lying Monday night," Chris reasoned. "Him interrupting us would get him some heat back."

"True, we were debating it back and forth, but we figured that we, as in me and you, should assert ourselves first as a real force to be reckoned with… we need as much heat on you as humanly possible, which means putting off on Triple H getting his until the fans want it so bad they can taste it," she said, a gleam in her eye as she envisioned all of this playing out to perfection. Chris snickered and rolled up the script in his hand, satisfied with the explanation.

"I think I like your way better," he said, tapping her on the forehead with the rolled-up script as he smirked. "Way to use that brain, Ms. McMahon."

"Whatever," she laughed, turning to walk out of his room. "I'll meet you by the gorilla before we go out for our promo, okay?"

"No problem, I'll see you there," he said, walking over to the bench in his locker room and taking a seat as she walked to the door. She opened it to leave and was surprised to see a woman standing on the other side, fist raised and ready to knock. Stephanie didn't recognize the woman with the loose white-blondish hair and petite frame, but she was able to put two and two together and figured this must've been Jessica.

Jessica was also surprised to see the door open before she had a chance to knock, and she was even more surprised by the wave of jealousy that came over her at the sight of Stephanie McMahon standing in her husband's locker room. She ignored the feeling though and cleared her throat, not wanting to make a scene.

"Hi, you must be Stephanie McMahon," Jessica said, forcing a polite smile to her face as she stuck out her hand. "I'm Jessica Irvine, Chris's wife."

"Oh, nice to meet you," Stephanie said as she smiled and took her hand to shake it. Chris glanced over at her, his curiosity piqued as he wondered who Stephanie was talking to at the door. "I'm surprised we haven't met sooner, with all the times I've worked with Chris."

"Likewise," Jessica answered, a slight edge to her tone as Chris walked over to them.

"Hey Steph, who are you talking to…" his voice trailed as he came up behind Stephanie and caught sight of his wife. Of all the people he had expected to arrive at his door that night, she was probably the last on the list. He ran his tongue over his teeth a little, before nodding in acknowledgement of her. "Jess, this is… quite a surprise," he forced himself to say, trying to at least appear like a civilized couple in front of Stephanie. "I wasn't expecting you."

"Just wanted to surprise you," she said with a smile as Stephanie looked back and forth between them.

"Alright, I'll leave you two to talk, I've got a show to help run," Stephanie said as she glanced back at Chris, who tore his eyes from his wife to look at her. "Remember, try to be at the gorilla ten minutes before we go out."

He smiled at her a little, "You've been telling me that since I debuted here, I think I got it."

"Just making sure," she said jokingly, reaching to him and patting his shoulder before turning back to Jessica. "It was nice meeting you, you should come along with Chris more often," she said kindly.

"I agree," Jessica said, glancing at Chris briefly before giving Stephanie a polite smile as she side-stepped enough for Stephanie to pass. Once she did, Jessica turned back to Chris who rolled his eyes and walked back into his locker room, with her right on his heels.

"So what gives, you're stalking me at work now?" Chris asked sarcastically as he went over and sat back down.

"What the hell is your problem?" Jessica demanded, putting her hands on her hips. "You haven't talked to me since Tuesday night, and so I came here to talk things over with you."

"There's nothing to talk about," he said as he picked up the script again.

"Would you stop being so damn difficult?" she snapped as he looked up at her angrily.

"I'm tired of arguing with you, that's why I haven't been talking to you, because it's the same old bullshit with you," he said evenly, trying to keep his temper. "All you do is get defensive while failing to realize that I'm just trying to do my job, so yeah, sue me if I'm tired of arguing about it."

"Chris," she sighed, "I'm tired of arguing about it too."

"Yeah?" he asked indifferently, looking back down at his script, "Cause you sure as hell don't act like it."

"I'm here, aren't I?" she shot back, crossing her arms over in front of her as he sighed. "And what the hell was she doing in here anyways?"

He forced a laugh as he shook his head, flipping through pages of his script without actually reading any of it over, "Here we go again."

"I'm sorry, the next time I'm alone in a room with a guy I'm pretending to have an affair with and you take exception, I'll let it roll off my back too," she said testily as he stood up and faced her.

"See, this is what the hell I'm talking about!" he snapped. "What do you want me to do, Jessica? Do you want me to go and ask for them to drop this storyline, after pulling the best ratings all year on the first night we did it? Do you want me to ask to kill the only way for me to get the heat I need to draw a good show at WrestleMania? I mean, seriously, what the hell do you want from me?"

"I want you to stop the storyline," she said as he sighed and ran his hands through his hair, resting both hands on top of his head as he looked up at the ceiling. "Chris, come on, why can't you see how much it bothers me to see you do a storyline like this? Are you honestly telling me there are no better ways for this to play out?"

"I'm not changing it, alright?" he said with a clipped tone as he lowered his arms and looked at her. "I'm done talking about this, it's done, and we're going through it whether you like it or not."

They both stared at each other silently as if daring the other to give in, neither moving or saying a word as the door opened to his locker room.

"Chris, I talked it over with the other writers, and…" Stephanie paused as she took in the looks on their faces. "I'm sorry," she said sheepishly, wondering why she kept forgetting to knock before walking into Chris's locker room. "I didn't mean to interrupt, I'll come back later, I'm sorry," she said sheepishly, leaving the room before either could say a word back as she closed the door behind her. Chris glanced over at the door as Jessica sighed.

"Okay, I get it… if this is what you want to do, then I guess it's what you're going to do," she relented.

"It's what I'm going to do," he confirmed as he looked back at her.

"Alright," she said, giving in. "You obviously don't care how I feel about it, so fine, go right ahead and go do your storyline."

He groaned inwardly as he walked over to her, "Jess, come on, I do care but you're making it out like me and Stephanie are having a real affair, and we're not. It's like we're actors, come on babe, it's just business," he said as he pulled her into a hug. She hugged him back and rested her head on his chest.

"You're right, I've been overreacting," she said, still not comfortable with the whole idea but not wanting to further alienate her husband while the storyline ran its course. "And it'll be over soon, right?"

"It'll be over before you know it."

* * *

"Remember, you're coming out after this line, so don't forget your cue," Stephanie told Paul as he rolled his eyes. 

"That wasn't in the original script," he pointed out in a dull tone.

"Yeah, I think I realize that, being the head of creative," she responded evenly. "Chris suggested the change, he thought it'd be good and after thinking it over with the staff, they agreed."

"Whoa, wait a minute," Paul said as he scowled. "Since when does he make changes to the show?"

"He didn't _make _the change, he _suggested _the change, there's a difference," she pointed out. "And I liked his suggestion, and I decided to run with it, and we're done with this conversation."

"What, so you listen to his suggestions and not mine?" he challenged as she sucked at her teeth and looked away for a moment before looking back at him.

"For your information, I listen to every suggestion that's made to me, I only take the good ones up," she told him, just as Chris was walking up to them. He saw that they were in a tense conversation and he frowned a little, wondering what Paul was saying this time. That man had a knack for saying the wrong things at the wrong time, and he was briefly wondering why Stephanie put up with him when she spotted him. She smiled at the sight of him, "Chris, good, you're here."

"You said ten minutes, so I made it eleven," he said good-naturedly as he carried both of his championship belts over one arm, while holding a bottle of water in his free hand. Stephanie reached out and took the belts from him as Paul rolled his eyes.

"Heard you suggested the change in the script," he noted as Chris looked at Stephanie, who shrugged with a hint of a smirk on her face.

"I changed my mind," she said as a smirk came over his own face.

"You should've told me sooner, you know, given me more time than just ten minutes to prepare for the segment," Chris said jokingly.

"You're good enough that you need very little heads-up, and for the record, it's eleven minutes," Stephanie said matter-of-factly, but with a playful tone. Paul narrowed his eyes as he picked up on her tone, but dismissed it as her rubbing a tension-less relationship in his face to make him feel like crap for giving her a hard time. It'd be just like Stephanie to do something like that to him, to get back at him in a subtle but effective kind of way.

"Alright, I think I'm going to go get some water before we're on, since I have the time while you guys do your promo," Paul said as Chris unscrewed the cap from his water bottle, taking a swig of the water so he wouldn't have to fully acknowledge the man before him. Paul shot him a look as Stephanie ignored him for the time being, focusing on making sure that Chris's belts had no spots and were as shiny as shiny could be.

Once Paul was gone, Stephanie looked at Chris who was putting the top back on his water bottle. She gave him an apologetic smile, "I'm really sorry for walking in on you and Jessica earlier," she said, drawing his attention to her.

"Oh, don't be," he said dismissively, waving it off as she put both of his belts down on the table next to them. She lifted one and walked over to him, reaching with one hand to the open shirt he was wearing and giving it a gentle tug.

"Here, take this off so I can help you put this on," she said as she motioned to the championship belt she was holding. He shrugged and slipped his shirt off easily, holding it in one hand as he raised his arms as she stepped behind him. She wrapped the belt around him, "I was just apologizing because it seemed like you guys were mad at each other or something."

"Yeah, we were, but what can you do… no need for you to apologize," he said in an easy tone as she fastened the belt behind his back.

"I just didn't want to make it more awkward," she admitted as he slipped his shirt back on while she stepped back in front of him to observe him. He adjusted the collar on his shirt and left it unbuttoned at the front, shrugging a little as he did it.

"Women, I can't figure them out," he said with a small smirk as she handed him his other championship belt.

"Yeah, I'm sure," she said sarcastically as he slung the second belt over his shoulder. He adjusted it a little before looking back at her with that cocky in-character smirk on his face.

"How do I look?" he asked arrogantly as she looked him over, "Do I make you want to drag me off somewhere for some Vitamin C?" he teased as she rolled her eyes.

"Alright there, Chris Jericho," she said in a warning tone as he laughed. The sound of his laugh made her break and crack a smile, "You look fine, and I believe we're all ready to go."

"Good," he said, holding onto the belt over his shoulder with one hand and reaching with his free hand for hers. She gave him a look of genuine surprise as he smiled, "We might as well get into character, since we're on in what, about 42 seconds?"

She laughed and took his hand, very confidently and very naturally as they both walked to the stage entrance. "41 seconds, to be exact," she told him as they got a signal that they Chris's pyro was getting ready and they were on soon.

"Hey, no one's perfect, not even me," he said jokingly, before growing quiet as he stood next to her. He leaned over closer to her and whispered, "You ready?"

"I was born ready," she countered, in full character now as he smirked, his wife all but forgotten as he immersed himself in the character of Chris Jericho, the larger than life cockier bastard version of himself.

But what he didn't know was that Jessica had decided not to stick around in his locker room and was hanging back, watching him interact with Stephanie before their scheduled promo. She was almost bristling with jealousy at the way the two interacted, with the flirting and looking and joking, the whole thing making her feel incredibly uneasy about giving him the go-ahead to go through with this storyline.

Paul was coming back from getting a fresh cold water bottle when he spotted a woman with an intense interest in watching something, her eyes focused forward as she watched something or other intently. He noticed her because she was probably the only person just hanging back and not moving along to be somewhere or talk to someone, which made her stick out like a sore thumb in the midst of the madness that was the backstage area for a SmackDown taping. Add to the fact that he didn't recognize her at all, it made him naturally curious.

He followed her line of sight until it came to rest on Chris and Stephanie, who were both standing by the stage entrance hand-in-hand as she laughed at something he was telling her. Paul scowled at the sight as the sound of Chris's pyro went off, and he stepped through the curtains and led Stephanie through as well. Paul looked back at the woman watching and put two-and-two together, figuring anyone with that kind of interest had to have been Chris's wife.

Figuring he had some time before he went on, he decided he'd go and introduce himself.

Jessica had her arms crossed over in front of her and was frowning at the sight of Chris and Stephanie together, trying to convince herself that there was nothing to worry about and it was what Chris said it was – just business. She was more than a little startled then when she felt someone tapping her shoulder. Glancing over, she smiled politely at the man she knew her husband couldn't stand.

"I'm sorry, am I in the way?" she asked, ready to head back to Chris's locker room.

"No, not at all, I was just wondering if you were Chris Irvine's wife?"

"Yeah, my name's Jessica, and you're Paul?" she asked, to be sure. He smiled and nodded, offering her his hand.

"It's about time Chris brought you around, I was starting to wonder if his marriage was all a charade or something," he joked as she snickered.

"Well, I just had to come and see what the big storyline was about firsthand," she said casually as Paul nodded.

"Yeah, Chris and Stephanie, quite the pair huh?" he said casually. "Those two have definite sparks with each other, that's for sure."

Jessica narrowed her eyes suspiciously, "What do you mean by that?"

"Oh, I mean, they have this really great chemistry together, that's why they work together so much and why it goes so well, they have sparks together," Paul said nonchalantly as he shrugged. "You must have a lot of trust in the guy, huh?"

"Yeah," she forced herself to say, not wanting to create a scene, "I guess it comes with the package."

"Yeah, that's cool," he said with a smirk, "Well, I've got to go get ready for my cue, but it was nice meeting you."

"Nice meeting you too," Jessica said, watching as he walked towards the stage entrance where her husband had stood a moment before. As soon as he was out of sight, she frowned, feeling uncomfortable with the whole thing and wishing Chris would just see it her way for a change as she turned and headed back towards his locker room. She couldn't for the life of her understand why he couldn't just see why it bothered her and why he couldn't do something about it. She also didn't like what Paul had implied, it settled very uneasily with her.

She wanted very much to believe Chris, but that jealousy that came over her upon seeing him together with Stephanie wasn't going away any time soon.

* * *

"Excuse me," Stephanie said into her microphone, looking around at the audience as they chanted 'slut' at her. She gave the crowd an evil glare as Chris paced behind her, giving people in the audience dirty looks. "If you'd all just settle down a bit, I could clarify some things that need to be addressed after last Monday night." 

The crowd was buzzing as the chants grew louder, and she scowled as Chris stopped his pacing and walked over to her. He took the microphone from her, giving her a look before turning to the audience and raising the mic for himself.

"What she's trying to say is shut the hell up you jackasses, cause we've got something to say!" he yelled angrily into the microphone as the chants stopped and the boos rained down on them. He smirked and popped a bubble with his gum as Stephanie stepped around him, casually taking the microphone back as she gave him a look of pure lust.

"I suppose you all want to know why," she said into the mic as she reached up to Chris's face. He smirked as she trailed his jaw line with one finger, starting from his chin and working her way back before trailing down his neck and then down his chest. "Why would I cheat on my husband of over two years with a man I absolutely could not stand? How could I do such a thing?" She paused to let the chants of 'slut' ring out for a few moments as Chris sneered at the audience, before clearing her throat and continuing.

"The reason why is because that _husband _was never there for me!" she yelled into the microphone as the chants once again turned to boos. "Rehab, rehab, rehab, championships, championships, championships, it's always been the same to Triple H! I was sitting backstage, here, at work, doing _nothing_ and coming in second place with my husband who deemed his career more important than me, so you tell me, what was I supposed to do?"

"You see," she said, turning back to face Chris who slowly eyed her up and down, looking like he was seconds away from ripping her clothes off as she smirked, "I needed a _real _man in my life, to… take _care _of my needs, since my husband wasn't doing the job. One night, I was feeling lonely, and I happened to get into a fight with one particular man," she droned as she slowly started circling Chris, who smirked, "This man was egotistical… hardheaded… stubborn… and unbelievably sexy," she said as she eyed him lecherously from behind as he looked over his shoulder at her. "He was a real man, and the fight somehow turned to making out against a wall… which then turned to something else as I found out just how much of a man Chris Jericho really is," she said as she finished walking around him.

She gave him a smirk before turning to the camera, "And trust me, Hunter, Chris is more of a man than you'll _ever _be," she said as Chris wrapped an arm around her from behind. He closed his eyes and leaned in, kissing the side of her neck as she smiled and leaned her head back and just getting lost in the feel of his kissing. And damn, did it feel good as he drew her in closer against him as she straightened and raised the microphone again, staring straight into the camera. "It was weird at first, Hunter, don't get me wrong… Chris and I weren't the best of friends, but we couldn't explain it, and I couldn't resist him, and I don't regret a goddamn second of it because he rocks my world like you couldn't imagine, baby."

Chris pulled away from her and smirked, before motioning for the microphone. Stephanie handed it to him as she linked his arm with hers, leaning into him from his side as he looked over at her, letting the crowd get their booing in as they called him an asshole. Stephanie reached out with her other hand and traced the championship belt over his shoulder with a finger, before reaching her hand over and caressing the skin of his bare chest with her perfectly manicured fingers. Chris slowly raised the microphone with his other hand, glancing at the camera with that maddening self-satisfied smirk on his face as the crowd tore him a new one, giving him chills at just how much heat he was drawing from them.

"You can't beat me at WrestleMania, because I've already beaten you, Hunter," he said cockily. "Because you see, your gold is already mine, Trips… and every single night, your wife is mine too," he said, before tossing the microphone aside and turning to Stephanie. He practically hauled her against him as he kissed her, while she instinctively put her arms around his neck as he deepened the kiss. It wasn't rehearsed, and it also wasn't exactly planned, but the adrenaline was going through both of them and the crowd was eating it all up as Chris flaunted it to the world that he had Stephanie now.

He pulled away when Triple H's music hit, and the crowd went wild for him as he casually strolled out onto the stage. He had his sledgehammer gripped in one hand, and a look of pure hatred on his face as Stephanie stood behind Chris in the ring, both of them selling it like if Paul was carrying a gun instead of a sledgehammer. He stopped for a moment halfway down the ramp, before charging down the rest of the way towards the ring as Stephanie immediately hightailed it out of the ring. Chris was only a half-second behind her, escaping from the ring just as Triple H slid inside.

Chris grabbed Stephanie by the hand and dragged her around the ring and back up the ramp, keeping his eye on Triple H as the two trash-talked each other the whole way with Triple H daring Chris to get back in the ring. He pretended for a second like he was going to, but Stephanie held him at bay as the crowd chanted an overwhelming chant for Triple H.

Chris stopped at the top of the ramp and held up one of his championship belts, the other wrapped around his waist still, with his free arm holding Stephanie close to him around her waist. He turned to her and kissed her again as she drew him in closer, making sure they made the kiss hot and involved for the TV audience. Chris finally pulled away and licked his lips, smirking as he looked back at Triple H who was pacing in the ring.

A moment later, and they were done shooting the segment and Chris was following Stephanie through the curtains backstage. As soon as he was through, Stephanie was hugging him tightly as he laughed.

"That was so amazing," she said brightly as he grinned.

"Yeah, we had them going alright," he said, self-satisfied as she let him go. He smiled at her and without thinking, reached up and brushed some hair in her face back. "That was fun huh?"

"Hell yes," she said, giving him an appreciative look. "God that was so exhilarating…" she sighed happily. "But anyways, don't mind me, you are probably going to go see Jessica, right?"

He forced his smile to stay in place, but the last thing he wanted to think about was how his wife was going to respond to the segment she had just seen, "Yeah, I should," he relented.

"Alright, then I'll just catch up with you later then," she said, giving him a smile and letting her hand linger on his arm for a moment before turning and walking off to find her father to discuss how the segment had taped. She didn't even bother waiting for Paul to come back, figuring she'd meet back up with him sooner rather than later.

Chris watched her walk away, smiling a little and thankful he was working with her for this storyline. She was the only person he was comfortable enough with that he could pull off making an affair storyline look as realistic and as natural as possible. He decided after a few seconds that he should probably go check up on Jessica, but not before he felt his lips and briefly remembered the taste of Stephanie's kiss. It was just business to him, but that didn't mean he couldn't appreciate a good kiss.

And Stephanie sure as hell knew how to kiss.


	11. Chapter 11

"I'm very pleased with where this storyline is going, don't you agree, Stephanie?"

"I absolutely do, Dad," Stephanie said with a grin on her face.

Vince looked over the ratings report again and shook his head, "I have to hand it to Chris, he thought of a great idea…a great, great idea. I never imagined that the fans would take to it so much, it's getting better ratings than the Rock/Hogan segments."

"I know, it's amazing," Stephanie gushed, and she too was surprised by that because going into the road to WrestleMania, planning out the feuds, they expected The Rock vs. Hogan to be their huge draw, and while it was still a huge draw and pulling in great ratings, her storyline with Chris was surpassing it. "But in all honesty, Dad, I think this has been a long time coming."

"What do you mean?"

"I think that this is the pay-off that the fans want to see with this," she explained. "They've seen me and Chris at odds, and now they see that it was all a farce, it wraps up an ongoing storyline that people have liked for a really long time."

"That's true," he nodded, "well, I want to call in Chris and Paul in here and express to them how well it's going, can you have them paged for me?"

"Of course," Stephanie said, flipping her headphones onto her head and turning on the pack that was securely clipped to her side. "Hey, Danny, can you find me Chris Irvine and Paul Levesque and have them report to Vince McMahon's office immediately."

"Sure, boss."

Stephanie flipped her headphones back off, "They should be here shortly. You know, this was all Chris's idea, so he should get a little extra attention for that, I wouldn't want to take all the credit for it."

Her father chuckled, "Well, maybe we should include him on the writing team from now on if he has such great ideas."

She laughed back at that, "Are you trying to replace me, Dad?"

"Replace you? You'd never allow it," he told her.

The door opened and Chris walked inside, a little tentatively until he saw Stephanie and an easy smile came over his face. Stephanie found herself smiling back since his smile was just so infectious. The interaction didn't go unnoticed by Vince, who was an observant bastard, but he let it go for the time being, knowing that his daughter was dating Paul and that Chris was happily married.

"I was told that you needed me," Chris said as he walked in further.

"Dad just wanted to discuss the storyline with you and with Paul, we're waiting on him."

"Oh, cool," he said, taking a seat next to Stephanie. "Well…how've you been?"

"I've been good," Stephanie said, "How's your wife? It was really nice meeting her…you know, despite the awkwardness, not that I'm saying it was awkward or anything, but yeah, you know, when I walked in without knocking and you looked angry at each other, and I'm just going to stop talking…how's your wife?"

Chris laughed at how flustered she always seemed to be, "She's good, she had a really good time seeing where I work last week."

Okay, so that was a complete and utter lie. Jessica had been in a pissy mood since they had arrived home last week. It was pretty bad those first few days as she refused to talk to him. He had even caught her watching the scenes like she was scrutinizing any movement and word. On the fourth day of her vow of silence, she finally erupted, saying that they were too involved, they weren't supposed to kiss like _that_, and all this other junk that went in one ear and out the other.

He was getting praised at work, he was getting better ratings for the company than two of the biggest names in the history of the business, and he was the one who was actually behind it all. It felt good. He was finally at the top of the mountain and he wasn't going to come down until he was damn good and ready, and if Jessica didn't like that, well, so what? She was off spending his money anyways, so she shouldn't care how he got it.

"Great, you should bring her by more often," Stephanie said, trying to be personable. "I'd never met her before, she looks like someone that you would be with."

"Oh, and just what does that entail?" he asked with a smirk.

"I don't know, she just looked liked someone you'd be with, it's something you say to someone when you're trying to be polite," she joked to him.

"Oh, I see how it is, you hated her," he joked back as she started to blush.

"No, no, that's not what--"

"I'm kidding, Steph, don't worry about it," he said, putting his hand on her arm to calm her down. Vince watched the two of them closely. They seemed to forget that he was even in the room, and not only that, but he detected a bit of flirting in their tones. It intrigued him, worried him, and pleased him all at the same time. It intrigued him because he had never really seen them backstage interacting. It worried him because they were both taken, and it pleased him because this was what was bringing him in ratings.

Paul chose that moment to walk in the room, "Vince, you needed me?"

"Ahh, yes, welcome," Vince said, gesturing towards the seats in front of him, "Take a seat."

Paul noticed that Chris had taken the chair next to Stephanie, leaving the only one open next to Chris. He grudgingly took a seat. "I was in the gym, sorry I didn't come sooner."

"It's fine," Vince said, glad that he had gotten to see his daughter and Chris interact, he was starting to form ideas about where they could take this. "I just wanted to commend you all for your storyline, you three are pulling in excellent ratings and I wanted you to keep up the good work, all of you."

Paul scowled. He hated this fucking storyline, and he wanted it to end soon, but now it had Vince's total seal of approval; it had the big ratings. He was just glad that it would all end with WrestleMania, then this asshole would be out of the picture and he would have the title, and everything would be right in Paul's world. Notice the lack of anything having to do with Stephanie in Paul's perfect, little world.

"I'm glad it's doing well," he said dully, trying to sound enthusiastic, but failing miserably.

"Yes, I think it's doing so well that Chris, you're retaining at WrestleMania," Vince declared, surprising the other three occupants in the room. Paul was the most flabbergasted, his jaw actually dropping.

"What!" Paul exclaimed. "I thought that we agreed that I'd be getting it, that it would be the journey that I was on, winning the Rumble and everything, this was going to be the pinnacle of my road back from injury!"

"I understand that, Paul," Vince said sternly, "but this is too good to just let go. Look at what happened with you and Stephanie when we extended that storyline, we had the Kurt/Stephanie/Paul storyline and everyone loved that. I see the same thing developing here, maybe even better and we need to run with it. I think we can maybe even extend it to SummerSlam as long as you two keep the chemistry coming."

"You…want me to hold the title until SummerSlam?" Chris asked incredulously. He had been content to hold the title for four months, it was still an achievement and he was the first ever Undisputed Champion, and it was great for his career. He had been okay with dropping the title to Paul in the main event at the biggest show of the year, but now Vince wanted to extend his run for months and months; he could hardly contain his eagerness.

"Yes, I think that would add legitimacy to the storyline, don't you think so, Stephanie?"

She was caught between a rock and a hard place. She could feel Paul's eyes boring into her and she licked her bottom lip a little. Paul would be so angry about this; part of what eased his mind over this was the fact that he was going to get the title at the end of it, but now her father wanted to extend it, and she was for the idea. When you had something going so splendidly, you had to ride the wave until it crashed against the shore.

"I love the idea, Dad, I think that it would be great over the summer. The fans will see the entire thing develop until it reaches a fever pitch."

"I know that it might be difficult to keep it up for that long, but I think that we can if we don't overdo it," Vince said. "So you know, sometimes you interact, sometimes you don't, we managed to keep you two," he said, looking at Stephanie and Paul, "together for two years with no problems, we can do this too. Maybe have some mini-feuds for the both of you with the underlying tension always there."

"Sounds great, Vince," Chris said with a smile on his face. Paul had slumped into his chair even more than he had before.

"Wonderful, and let's step it up a little, shall we?" he said, looking down at the script sitting on his desk. "Instead of another promo, I want a series of vignettes for tonight. What I'm thinking is that you, Paul, find Stephanie and Chris making out in the hallway and you just kind of get into an argument, and you have to hold Chris back, Stephanie, but then Chris charges at Paul after he says something particularly vile about you, and then we have some backstage guys intercede, then later on, I think you should have a solo confrontation with him Stephanie. Paul got the better of you last week, so this week it should be your turn."

"Will do, Dad, I'll get on it."

"Good, now get out, all three of you and make this work," Vince said, shooing them out of the room.

Paul was out of the room like a dart, stomping down the hallway. Stephanie had to jog to catch up with him and his long strides. She put her hand on his arm, "Paul, wait, where are you going? We have to discuss what we're going to argue about."

"How about how fucked up this whole thing is getting!" he erupted.

"Paul," she said, rubbing her hand up and down his arm, but he pulled away angrily.

"You didn't even support me in there!"

"I think that extending it would be a good idea," she protested, "I'm sorry, but that's what I think, Paul, and this will put you in the limelight all summer long, you love that."

"I want the fucking title!" he screamed, causing a scene now. "And you, my _girlfriend_, was supposed to have my back in there, but you didn't, you just let your father go through with it, you let him!"

She took a deep, controlled breath, "Paul, I'm not going to argue about this. I think it's a good idea. As for what we'll argue tonight, we'll just have to go by ear. I think that you should talk about what a slut I am, that should incite Chris."

"Whatever, Stephanie, I don't give a fuck," Paul said.

"It's not your company, Paul, you don't make the decisions," she told him in no uncertain terms. "We try to do what's best for everyone, and in this instance, it's what best, don't argue it anymore."

"Don't act like my fucking mother, Stephanie."

And that was the last word he said before walking off.

Chris walked up hesitantly to Stephanie, coming to stand beside her, "Sorry?"

"What for?" she asked, turning to him.

"I do my job too well," he said light-heartedly, trying to ease the tension that had seemed to racket up to a million in just a few minutes. "I knew he was going to be pissed."

"Who cares?" she shrugged. "There's nothing I can do about it, nothing I'm willing _to_ do about it. I think it's a good idea. We're getting great ratings, Chris, better than anything right now, and it'd be stupid not to pursue this to the finish, making it only last a month or two just isn't going to work, not with this, it should last…that's okay with Jessica, right?"

"Yeah, she doesn't care." Another day, another lie, but he wanted this. "So…Paul is going to talk about you being a slut?"

"Yeah…he's probably thinking that of me right now anyways," she said with a sad smile and a sigh. "He's just pissed, he'll get over it. He's going to get the title again, he knows it, I know it, we all know it, he just has to be patient."

"That doesn't seem to be a trait that he has," Chris said.

"Well, he'll learn, won't he?" Stephanie said as she turned to him. "I'm really happy to be in this storyline with you, Chris. I haven't been a part of something like this in a long time. I mean, there was the Invasion, but that was so much more than just me, and now I feel back in the spotlight, and I don't know, I like it."

"I'm glad," he told her, putting his hand on her shoulder. "I have a match though, so I better get ready, I'll see you right before we have to film."

"I think we're going to do it soon, actually," Stephanie said. "That way we can just interject it into the show and not have to worry about being live. So give yourself about fifteen minutes to get ready and then come find me."

"Sure."

Getting Paul to even come over to film was a chore. He was angry, but knew that this was his job and he couldn't just say no and go sulk in the corner. They got all the cameras set up while Stephanie and Chris talked amongst themselves. Paul watched them intently, a frown on his face. He hated the closeness that they were displaying. When Stephanie started to lean up and capture Chris's lips in hers, he almost had a coronary until he realized they were filming now and he had to get into character, which wasn't too hard considering the immense amount of anger boiling inside of him right now.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the Slut Queen of the Universe," he said snidely.

Stephanie pulled away from Chris and turned to him, "What did you say?"

"Oh look, they come up for air," Hunter said. "I'd be careful of her, Jericho, you never know what you're going to catch, I heard you could serve a whole seafood buffet from just her--"

"Shut your damn mouth, Helmsley," Chris said angrily, "Just because you couldn't satisfy her and she had to find a real man doesn't mean you have to get all jealous."

"Ha! Jealous? Of you? That's funny, Jericho," Hunter said as he held his stomach. "The day I'd be jealous of you is the day hell freezes over, go ahead, take Stephanie, but you should be warned that she'll do anything that breathes, and as I heard, maybe stuff that doesn't breathe either, isn't that right, Stephy?"

"You son of a bitch!" Chris exclaimed trying to get at Hunter.

"It's not worth it, Chris," Stephanie said, trying to hold him back.

"Oh, it would be," Chris growled.

"Oh, so now Stephanie's wearing the pants in the relationship, that's so great for you, Chris, I'm sure she's really into that kinky stuff, I remember one time when we were--"

"That's it!" Chris said, sidestepping Stephanie and lunging at Chris. The two tussled around on the floor for a moment before Chris was pulled off of Hunter by a couple of other wrestlers. His hair was disheveled and his shirt was ripped, but he didn't care. He tried to break free, but couldn't as the director yelled cut and everyone went back to their normal states.

"That was great!" Stephanie said, hugging Chris. He hugged her back slowly, feeling her body pressed enticingly into his. He closed his eyes a moment but didn't let it linger. It was then that he realized something.

He was going to have to do _this_ for months and he came to a surprising conclusion…

He had no problem with that.


End file.
